thistle
noun/θɪsl̩/
Etymology From Middle English thistel, from Old English þistel, from Proto-West Germanic *þistil, from Proto-Germanic *þistilaz. *þīh- from *teyg-, which is a variant of Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- (“to prick”); from this same Proto-Indo-European root comes English stick. Cognates include Scots thrissel, German Distel, Dutch distel, and Old Norse and Icelandic þistill.
Any of several perennial composite plants, especially of genera Cirsium, Carduus, Cynara, or Onopordum, having prickly leaves and showy flower heads with prickly bracts.
- Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field [...].1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 3:18:
- I wasn’t born of a whistle, or milked from a thistle at twilight / No; I was all horns and thorns, sprung out fully formed, knock-kneed and upright2006, Joanna Newsom, “Sawdust and Diamonds”, in Ys:
This plant seen as the national emblem of Scotland.
Government, Heraldry, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Monarchy, Nobility, Politics An image of this plant used as a charge.
The Order of the Thistle, or membership thereof.
- Here's a passage which will please you: ‘It is said that when rich he twice refused the thistle.’1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 324:
- Derived terms
75 terms
artichoke thistle, blessed milk thistle, blessed thistle, bull thistle, burr thistle, Canada thistle, carline thistle, common sow thistle, corn thistle, cotton thistle, creeping thistle, curly plumeless thistle, dwarf thistle, edible thistle, European swamp thistle, fuller's thistle, globe thistle, golden thistle, hare's thistle, hedgehog thistle, Indian thistle, Italian thistle, Kansas thistle, Marian thistle, marsh thistle, Mary thistle, Mediterranean milk thistle, melancholy thistle, milk thistle, musk thistle, nodding thistle, pasture thistle, pine thistle, plumed thistle, Plymouth thistle, roadside thistle, Russian thistle, Saint Mary's thistle, Scotch thistle, shore thistle, silver thistle, slough thistle, soldier thistle, sow-thistle, sow thistle, spear thistle, star thistle, star-thistle, starthistle, stemless thistle, tall thistle, thistleball, thistle bird, thistle butterfly, thistle button, thistle crown, thistled, thistledown, thistlefinch, thistle funnel, thistlelike, thistle sage, thistletail, thistle tube, thistlewarp, thistlish, thistly, tumble thistle, variegated thistle, Watling Street thistle, way thistle, welted thistle, wood-thistle, woodthistle (Cirsium altissimus, yellow thistle