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Bear's breeches [Was: Lidl Gardening week]
La Puce wrote:
Mike Lyle wrote: I think the English is just an adaptation of late Latin _branca_, "paw". "Brank[s]" for "scold's bridle" is a Scots word of unestablished origin. In English English "Brank" was also used for buckwheat, but I don't think there's a connection there. You perhaps missed my post on this ... From the folklore of plants .... "The bear is another common prefix. Thus there is the bear's-foot, from its digital leaf, the bear-berry, or bear's-bilberry, from its fruit being a favourite food of bears, and the bear's-garlick. There is the bear's-breech, from its roughness, a name transferred by some mistake from the Acanthus to the cow-parsnip, and the bear's-wort, which it has been suggested "is rather to be derived from its use in uterine complaints than from the animal." My book 'naming of plants' says the acanthus is called bear's breech from the size and appearance of the leaf which is very big, broad and hairy. Acanthus in greek means thorn. No, I did see your post, thanks. As I said in my OP, yes, the Greek word does mean "spiny"; but I still don't see why bears would wear thorny pants. Looking at it as hairy rather than spiny could persuade one of a resemblance between the plant and an ursine back end, I suppose. I didn't know Bear-wort (_Meum athamanticum_), what we call Spignel, varie Baldmoney and Bishopsweed, had a reputation for helping with uterine conditions; but if it does, I'd be surprised if the "bear" in the name had anything to do with that. One of the OED quotations refers it to "the lower viscera", but I'd take that as guts rather than the womb. -- Mike. |
#2
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Bear's breeches [Was: Lidl Gardening week]
Mike Lyle wrote: No, I did see your post, thanks. As I said in my OP, yes, the Greek word does mean "spiny"; but I still don't see why bears would wear thorny pants. Looking at it as hairy rather than spiny could persuade one of a resemblance between the plant and an ursine back end, I suppose. Ha! It's says further, the acanthus leaf was a favorite decoration in classical sculpture, as in the capital of the Corinthian column. In England the bear has been dressed up and it is now called 'bear's breeches' despite long standing authority to the contrary. I didn't know Bear-wort (_Meum athamanticum_), what we call Spignel, varie Baldmoney and Bishopsweed, had a reputation for helping with uterine conditions; but if it does, I'd be surprised if the "bear" in the name had anything to do with that. One of the OED quotations refers it to "the lower viscera", but I'd take that as guts rather than the womb. Well yes. I would have always named taraxacum officinale for helping uterine conditions -as we say in France '****enlit' ) For something completely different:- I wondered if you would know the best way, or perhaps just 'a way' of distinguishing a viral desease from a fungal desease. I find it almost impossible to distinguish the two. Some start by being viral then turns into fungal deseases... I need two examples of each, and 2 more for bacterial infection. Can you help with something I can remember easily? |
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