Etymology

cress

C3R1E1S1S1

Today it means: A plant of various species, chiefly cruciferous. The leaves have a moderately pungent taste, and are used as a salad and antiscorbutic. Full definition →

Middle English cresse ← Old English cressa ← Proto-West Germanic *krassjō
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*krasjô“cress”
  2. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*krassjō
  3. Old English · inherited fromcressa
  4. Middle English · inherited fromcresse
  5. English todaycress

From Middle English cresse, crasse, from Old English cressa, cærse (“cress”), from Proto-West Germanic *krassjō, from Proto-Germanic *krasjô (“cress”). Cognate with West Frisian kers (“cress”), Dutch kers (“cress”), German Kresse (“cress”), Danish karse (“cress”), Swedish krasse (“cress”), Icelandic krassi (“cress”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.