sedge

English

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /sɛd͡ʒ/
  • Rhymes: -ɛdʒ
  • Audio (UK):(file)

Etymology 1

    From Middle English segge, from Old English seċġ, from Proto-West Germanic *sagi, from Proto-Germanic *sagjaz, from Proto-Indo-European *sak- (marsh plant).

    Cognate with Dutch zegge and German Segge, dialectal German Saher (reeds).

    Noun

    sedge (countable and uncountable, plural sedges)

    1. Any plant of the family Cyperaceae.
      1. Any plant of the genus Carex, the true sedges; perennial herbs with triangular jointless stems, a spiked inflorescence, and long grass-like leaves which are usually rough on the margins and midrib.
        • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
          But when the moon rose and the breeze awakened, and the sedges stirred, and the cat's-paws raced across the moonlit ponds, and the far surf off Wonder Head intoned the hymn of the four winds, the trinity, earth and sky and water, became one thunderous symphony—a harmony of sound and colour silvered to a monochrome by the moon.
    2. Any of various other plants resembling true sedges, such as Gentiana rubricaulis and Andropogon virginicus.
    Derived terms
    Translations

    See also

    Etymology 2

    By contraction from sedge fly.

    Noun

    sedge (plural sedges)

    1. (fishing) A dry fly used in fly fishing, designed to resemble a sedge or caddis fly.

    Etymology 3

    Variant spellings.

    Noun

    sedge (plural sedges)

    1. Obsolete spelling of siege.
    2. A flock of herons, cranes, or bitterns.

    References

    • sedge”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.


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