thistle
/θɪsl̩/ noun, proper noun
Forms thistles
- noun Any of several perennial composite plants, especially of genera Cirsium, Carduus, Cynara, or Onopordum, having prickly leaves and showy flower heads with prickly bracts.
- noun This plant seen as the national emblem of Scotland.
- noun (heraldry) An image of this plant used as a charge.
- noun The Order of the Thistle, or membership thereof.
- proper noun A surname.
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.
English surname from the noun thistle. Anglicized sources include German Distel and Norwegian Tistel (see tistel).
Webster’s 1913
- noun Any one of several prickly composite plants, especially those of the genera Cnicus, Craduus, and Onopordon. The name is often also applied to other prickly plants. Blessed thistle, Carduus benedictus, so named because it was formerly considered an antidote to the bite of venomous creatures.
Etymology [OE. thistil, AS. þistel; akin to D. & G. distel, OHG. distila, distil, Icel. þistill, Sw. tistel, Dan. tidsel; of uncertain origin.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “thistle”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details