herbage

What it means

1. uncountableusuallyHerbs collectively.
2. uncountableusuallyHerbaceous plant growth, especially grass.

   I threw myself upon my face, and clung to the scant herbage in an excess of nervous agitation.

   1841, Edgar Allan Poe, A Descent into the Maelström

   1 more example

   The dank breath of herbage, sodden with rain, came to her; the mists were barely visible, hovering above the dark ravines.

   1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska, published 2005, page 97

3. uncountableusuallyThe fleshy, often edible, parts of plants.

In a sentence

I threw myself upon my face, and clung to the scant herbage in an excess of nervous agitation.

1841, Edgar Allan Poe, A Descent into the Maelström

Where it comes from

1. Latinherba“grass”
2. Early Medieval Latinherbāticum
3. Old Frencherbage
4. Middle Englishherbage
5. Englishherbage

From Middle English herbage, from Old French erbage, from Early Medieval Latin herbāticum, from Latin herba (“grass”). By surface analysis, herb + -age.