Groundselle

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A common weedy plant with small yellow daisy-like flowers ; the low timber beam that lies along the base of a wall or frame
2. A small yellow-flowered weed of the daisy family ; an old term for the horizontal sill resting on the ground at the foot of a structure
3. A hardy wild herb with tiny yellow blooms ; the lowest horizontal timber of a framed wall, set directly on the foundation

Etymology: Groundsel, the common yellow-flowered weed, has an old name that once meant something quite different. Its Old English form was "grundeswelge", built from "grund" (ground) and a verb "swelgan" meaning "to swallow", so the plant was named for swallowing: it was said to grow close to the ground and to swallow up or absorb whatever was nearby, though the exact reasoning behind that name is uncertain. Over the centuries the word lost its middle syllables and softened into "groundsel" in Middle English, a form that is now the standard spelling. The spelling "groundselle" with a final double "l" and an "e" is not an accepted variant in standard dictionaries, which give "groundsel" alone. The added letters seem to be an error or an attempt to echo older spellings, and the form that matches the historical record is the single-"l" one.