sedge

English

a sedge of species Carex halleriana

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɛd͡ʒ/
• Rhymes: -ɛdʒ

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

Etymology 1

Etymology tree

Proto-Germanic *sagjaz

Proto-West Germanic *sagi

Old English seċġ

Middle English segge

English sedge

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, endogenous 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 other plants resembling sedges, such as Gentiana rubricaulis and Andropogon virginicus.

Derived terms

• acute sedge
• beaksedge
• Bicknell's sedge
• blue wood sedge
• bottle sedge
• broom sedge
• cat-tail sedge
• claspbract sedge
• common sedge
• few-flowered sedge
• fox sedge
• glaucous sedge
• Krause's sedge
• long hair sedge
• mud sedge
• Pennsylvania sedge
• plantainleaf sedge
• rare spring-sedge
• sallow sedge
• sand sedge
• sedged
• sedge-darter
• sedge fly
• sedge frog
• sedge grass
• sedgeland
• sedgelike
• sedge-skipper
• sedge warbler
• sedge wren
• silvery sedge
• slender sedge
• soft fox sedge
• star sedge
• string sedge
• true sedge
• tussock sedge
• wood sedge

 

Translations

any plant of the family Cyperaceae

• Czech: šáchorovitá rostlina
• Finnish: sarakasvi (fi)
• Irish: cíb f
• Scottish Gaelic: stàrr m
• Swedish: halvgräs (sv) n
• Translingual: Cyperaceae

any plant of the genus Carex

• Armenian: կնյուն (hy) (knyun)
• Breton: hesk (br)
• Bulgarian: острица f (ostrica)
• Cornish: hesk
• Czech: ostřice f
• Danish: star (da) c
• Dutch: zegge (nl) f
• Esperanto: karekso
• Faroese: stør f, størur m, stargras n, steyrur m
• Finnish: sara (fi)
• French: laîche (fr) f
• Galician: carrizo (gl) m
• Georgian: ისლი (isli)
• German: Segge (de) f, Riedgras n
• Greek:

  Ancient: βούτομον n (boútomon)

• Hungarian: sás (hu)
• Irish: seisg
• Italian: sala (it) f, carice m
• Japanese: 菅 (ja) (すげ, suge)
• Kyrgyz: өлөң (ky) (ölöŋ)
• Latin: cārex f
• Laz: ისირი (isiri)
• Maori: toetoe, tākahikahi, tarangārara
• Mingrelian: ისირი (isiri)
• Navajo: tłʼoh dichʼíízh
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: starr m

  Nynorsk: storr m

• Ossetian: дзала (ʒala)
• Ottoman Turkish: قوم اوتی (kum otu)
• Persian: جگن (fa) (jagan)
• Polish: turzyca (pl) f
• Portuguese: carriço (pt) m
• Romanian: rogoz (ro) n
• Russian: осока (ru) f (osoka)
• Scottish Gaelic: seisg f, seasg m
• Serbo-Croatian: šaš (sh) m
• Slovak: ostrica f
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: rězyna f

• Spanish: carrizo (es) m
• Svan: ისრ (isr)
• Swedish: starr
• Translingual: Carex
• Ukrainian: осока f (osoka)
• Welsh: hesgen f

See also

• bulrush
• reed
• sedge on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Carex on Wikispecies.Wikispecies

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.

Anagrams

• edges