Sparrowgrasses

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Shoots of the asparagus plant, sometimes called by the old dialect name for that vegetable
2. A green spear-shaped vegetable, an informal or regional name for the asparagus plant
3. Plural of an old colloquial name for asparagus, the edible young shoots of a perennial plant

Etymology: Sparrowgrass is an old, mostly dialect-and-humorous name for asparagus, and it arose through folk etymology: speakers reshaped the unfamiliar Latin-derived "asparagus" into something that sounded like familiar English words. The plural "sparrowgrasses" is simply the ordinary plural of that noun, which is why it appears in writing as a noun with an -es ending. The reshaping is the story. Asparagus came into English from Latin "asparagus", itself borrowed from Greek "asparagos", and its stressed syllables and sibilants were awkward for many speakers. The result was a form that matched the existing words "sparrow" and "grass", which made a plant-like name feel natural even though the birds have nothing to do with it.

Synonyms: asparagus