Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun An eastern Asian plant (Sium sisarum) in the parsley family, having a cluster of tuberous, sweetish, edible roots.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A species of waterparsnip, Sium Sisarum, generally said to be of Chinese origin, long cultivated in Europe for its esculent root.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Bot.) An umbelliferous plant (
Sium Sisarum syn.Pimpinella Sisarum ). It is a native of Asia, but has been long cultivated in Europe for its edible clustered tuberous roots, which are very sweet.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun An
umbelliferous plant (Sium or Pimpinella sisarum), cultivated for its sweet edibletuberous roots .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an Asiatic herb cultivated in Europe for its sweet edible tuberous root
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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On the other hand, there was a kind of parsnip called skirret that did die out entirely because people stopped cultivating it, and a type of small onion, and a certain breed of English peas—
TO STORM HEAVEN ESTHER FRIESNER 1990
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Garnish it with orange peel boil'd in strong broth, and some French beans boil'd, and put in thick butter, or some skirret, cardones, artichocks, slic't lemon, mace, or orange.
The accomplisht cook or, The art & mystery of cookery Robert May
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It was made of barley; certain herbs, such as lupine and skirret, were used as substitutes for hops.
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Vegetables count cole, collard, kale, all ` cabbage 'and preserved in kailyard ` cabbage garden,' symbolic of Scotland's literature since 1895 as in "the kailyard school"; rutabaga ` turnip, 'literally, ` root-bag'; and skirret ` parsnip, 'literally, ` sheer-white.'
knitandpurl commented on the word skirret
"Familiar smells drifted in the air: fennel, skirrets and alexanders, then wild garlic, radishes and broom."
John Saturnall's Feast by Lawrence Norfolk, p 85
November 10, 2012
bilby commented on the word skirret
A.k.a. crummock.
August 19, 2014
qms commented on the word skirret
At first I thought that A. K. A. Crummock must be a Tasmanian politician who leads a second life as Mr. Skirret. It now looks like that is not true, but it should be and somebody should write that novel.
bilby has a talent for planting words that lead to other delights. Thus skirret leads to umbelliferous, and then to umbel, and on to peduncle and crummie. Botanists must distill elevating libations from their specimens before they sit down to make these words up. Umbelliferous is wonderful. It has a boring botanical meaning but to me it suggests something orgasmic. It all makes me want to head off to the arboretum and try to engage a stranger in conversation.
August 19, 2014
bilby commented on the word skirret
Would ye like to meet A.K.A. Crummock?
He's a root that's so fine in yer stomach.
As for some supposition
He's a Tas politician...
Sorry to have left y'all flummoxed.
August 19, 2014