shepherd's purse

English

Shepherd's purse seeds in the seed pod from which it gets its name

Etymology

Alluding to the shape of its seed vessel. Compare mediaeval Latin bursa pastoris, French bourse-à-berger, German Hirtentasche.

Noun

shepherd's purse (uncountable)

1. An edible weed, Capsella bursa-pastoris, family Brassicaceae, native to Europe but now found world-wide.

   Synonym: shepherd's pouch

   • 1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion, song 13 p. 218:

     To him that hath a flux, of Sheepheards purse he gives

   • 1979, Angela Carter, “The Erl-King”, in The Bloody Chamber, Vintage 2006, page 98:

     Stewed nettles; savoury messes of chickweed sprinkled with nutmeg; he cooks the foliage of shepherd's purse as if it were cabbage.

Translations

Capsella bursa-pastoris

• Albanian: shtrapër (sq) m
• Arabic: كِيس الرَاعِي m or f (kīs ar-rāʕī)
• Azerbaijani: quşəppəyi (az)
• Bulgarian: овчарска торбичка f (ovčarska torbička)
• Catalan: sarronets de pastor m pl, bosses de pastor f pl
• Chinese:

  Hokkien: 上己菜 (siōng-kí-chhài)

  Mandarin: 薺菜／荠菜 (zh) (jìcài)

• Czech: kokoška pastuší tobolka f
• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: herderstasje (nl) n
• Finnish: lutukka (fi)
• French: bourse-à-pasteur (fr) f, boursette (fr) f, capselle (fr) f, bourse-à-berger (fr) f
• German: Hirtentäschel (de) n, Hirtentäschelkraut n
• Greek: αγριοκαρδαμούδα f (agriokardamoúda)

  Ancient: θλάσπις f (thláspis)

• Hindi: please add this translation if you can
• Ido: pastoroburso (io)
• Ingrian: koirankuudra
• Irish: lus an sparáin f
• Japanese: 薺 (ja) (ナズナ, nazuna)
• Kazakh: жұмыршақ (jūmyrşaq)
• Korean: 냉이 (naeng'i)
• Norman: bourse f (Jersey), pid d'ouaîthé m (Jersey)
• Ottoman Turkish: چوبان چانطه‌سی (çoban çantası)
• Polish: tasznik m
• Portuguese: bolsa-de-pastor (pt) f
• Romanian: traista-ciobanului (ro) f, punguliță (ro) f
• Russian: сумочник пастуший m (sumočnik pastušij), пасту́шья су́мка f (pastúšʹja súmka)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: русо̀мача f, тарчу̀жа̄к m

  Latin: rusòmača (sh) f, tarčùžāk (sh) m

• Slovak: pastierska kapsička (sk) f
• Spanish: bolsa del pastor m
• Swedish: lomme (sv) c
• Turkish: çobançantası (tr)
• Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can
• Welsh: pwrs y bugail m

Further reading

• shepherd's purse on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Capsella bursa-pastoris on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Capsella bursa-pastoris on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons