Etymology

gorse

G2O1R1S1E1

Today it means: An evergreen shrub, of the genus Ulex, having thorns, spiny leaves, and yellow flowers. Full definition →

Middle English gorst ← Old English gors ← Proto-West Germanic *gorst
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · inherited from*ǵʰer-“to bristle”
  2. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*gerstu“barley”
  3. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*gurstaz
  4. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*gorst
  5. Old English · inherited fromgors
  6. Middle English · inherited fromgorst
  7. English todaygorse

From Middle English gorst, gors, from Old English gors, gorst, from Proto-West Germanic *gorst, from Proto-Germanic *gurstaz or Proto-West Germanic *gerstu (“barley”). Akin to German Gerste (“barley”) and Latin hordeum (“barley”). Also compare Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰer- (“to bristle”), whence Proto-Celtic *garwos.

Words from the same roots

Proto-Indo-European*ǵʰer- all →

gralloch

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.