Yellowcresses

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Small herbaceous plants of the genus Rorippa, often growing in wet ground and bearing clusters of yellow flowers
2. Wetland or marsh herbs in the mustard family that produce tiny bright yellow blossoms in spring and summer
3. Members of the mustard family, chiefly from the genus Rorippa, known for their small golden flowers and peppery leaves

Etymology: "Yellowcresses" is the plural of "yellowcress", a noun for a plant of the genus Rorippa, and the form is a straightforward one: the singular names the plant, and the plural counts more than one of them. The singular is a plain compound of "yellow" and "cress", so its history is simply the history of its two parts. "Cress" is an old word for a family of pungent, leafy plants eaten in salads, and "yellow" describes the colour of the small blossoms these plants bear. Joining the two gives a name that picks out the plant by its most visible feature, much as many common plant names in English do.