cushag

English

Etymology

From Manx cushag vooar (“big stalk”), from cushag (“stalk”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkʊˌʃəɡ/, /ˈkʊˌʃæɡ/, /ˈkʊˌʒəɡ/

Noun

cushag (plural cushags)

1. (chiefly Isle of Man) The ragwort, the national flower of the Isle of Man, which has a large stalk.
   • 1894, Hall Caine, The Manxman, page 98:

     He saw Kate coming down the glen road, driving two heifers with a cushag for switch and flashing its gold at them in the horizontal gleams of sunset.

   • 1908, British Bee Journal and Bee-keepers' Adviser, volume 36, page 214:

     I pointed out a field near my apiary full of cushags, and, though a sunny day in midsummer, not a bee was to be found among the cushags, nor had I ever previously seen them working on that flower.

   • 1954, Dorothy Kaucher, Armchair in the sky: ocean flights with air pioneers, page 108:

     Little green men with their eyes all afire,
     Poking stray sunbeams in pools to catch them,
     Binding the wind with a cushag stem wire,
     Throwing the mist on the clouds to patch them.

Quotations

• 1913, Hall Caine, The woman thou gavest me: being the story of Mary O'Neill:

  "Mary, my love, you will certainly agree that your islanders who do not eat cushags, poor dears, are the funniest people alive as guests."

Manx

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kʊʒəɡ/, /kʊʒaɡ/

Noun

cushag

1. stalk