11-05-2005, 01:09 PM
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In article , writes:
| Miss Perspicacia Tick wrote:
| Also check your soil type - where do you live? They also like to be in the
| full sun and, to the best of my knowledge, aren't that hardy, so would need
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| We're in East Anglia, hardly the least frosty part of the UK, and ours
| have survived several years without problems.
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| As an aside, could someone please tell me why it's colloquially known as
| 'sparrows' grass' - is it to do with the sound of the word - or something
| else?
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| I thought it was the other way about, asparagus is a corruption of
| sparrow grass, but maybe I'm completely wrong there.
From the OED:
Originally asfaragos in Greek, sperach or sparage in the 16th century,
asparagus came in about 1600 via herbalists etc. which was corrupted
to sparrow-grass by 1690, which was replaced by asparagus in educated
use in the 19th century, though cookery books often referred to grass.
Regards,
Nick Maclaren.
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