ˈgoose-grass
Forms: α. see goose and grass. β. 6–8 erron. goose-grease.
The popular name of various plants, most of which are or were formerly used as food for geese.
1. Silver-weed (Potentilla Anserina).
| a 1387 Sinon. Barthol. (Anecd. Oxon.) 41 Tanacetum album, gosegresse. c 1400 Med. Wks. 15th C. (Henslow 1899) 99 Tak plaunteyn, gosgres, an[d] housleke. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 204/1 Gosys gres, or camoroche, or wylde tanzy. 1597 Gerarde Herbal Suppl., Goosegras was sometime called Argentina. 1691 Ray N.C. Words 32 Goose grass, Goose tansie, Argentina. 1707 Mortimer Husb. 240 Goose grass or Wild Tansie is a Weed that strong Clays are very subject to. 1853 G. Johnston Nat. Hist. E. Bord. I. 71 Potentilla anserina,..Goose-grass. |
2. Cleavers (Galium Aparine).
Hence applied with distinctive epithet to other species of Galium, as in † downy-stalk goosegrass, ? some variety of G. scabrum (Withering Brit. Pl. 1796); yellow goosegrass, Our Lady's Bedstraw, G. verum (Britten & H., citing Rural Cycl.). Possibly quot. c 1400 (sense 1) belongs to this sense.
| α 1538 Turner Libellus, Goosgyrs, Apparine. 1578 Lyte Dodoens iv. lxxiv. 538 Cliuer or Goosegrasse hath many smal square branches. 1657 W. Coles Adam in Eden clxxxvii. 292 It is called in English..Goosegrasse, Cleavers (or Clivers). 1779 Mrs. Delany Life & Corr. Ser. ii. II. 425 The specimen of goose grass or cleavers that you enclos'd is the right sort. 1860 All Year Round No. 48. 508 The seeds of avens have one single hook, those of agrimony and goosegrass many. 1861 Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. III. 153 (Goose-grass or Cleavers)..This plant is said to have its name from the fondness of that bird for its herbage. |
| β 1530 Palsgr. 226/2 Gose grece, an herbe. 1587 L. Mascall Govt. Cattle i. (1600) 15 Likewise the iuice of cleuers, or goose grease. 1691 Ray N.C. Words 35 Hariff and Catchweed; Goose-grease, Aparine. 1731 Bailey, Hariff and Catchweed, Goose Grease. |
† 3. purple goose-grass, field madder or spurwort (Sherardia arvensis). Obs.
| 1548 Turner Names of Herbes 11 It [Alysson Plinii] had leaues lyke madder and purple floures, it maye be named in Englishe purple goosgrafe [sic]. |
4. The wild grass Bromus mollis.
| 1853 G. Johnston Nat. Hist. E. Bord. I. 217 Bromus mollis..Goose-grass: Bull-grass. 1893 in Northumbld. Gloss. |
5. U.S. a. ‘The door-weed, Polygonum aviculare’ (Cent. Dict.). b. ‘Low spear-grass, Poa annua’ (Stand. Dict.).