Dictionary

tansy en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈtæn.zi/ (US)
• /ˈtanzi/ (UK)

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English tansy, tansey, syncopic forms of earlier tanesie, tanesei, from Old French tanesie, tanoisie, tanasie, tanaisie, from Medieval Latin tanacetum, atanacetum, attested since the 8th century, of obscure origin, speculated from Ancient Greek ἀθανασία (athanasía, “immortality”) owing to hallucinations from the thujone in the plant, else from taenia (“tapeworm”) due to its primary use against parasites by which reason it is called in Arabic حَشِيشَة الدُود (ḥašīša ad-dūd, literally “worm herb”), otherwise a Berber borrowing like tagetes.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) A herbaceous plant with yellow flowers, of the genus Tanacetum, especially Tanacetum vulgare.
   • Various measures were taken to avoid it, most popular being the suspension of certain herbs and tree branches over the doorways of dwellings and stables. Commonly used greenery were tansy, honesty, garlic, St. John's Wort, mountain ash, roadside verbena. 1940, Rosetta E. Clarkson, Green Enchantments: The Magic Spell of Gardens, The Macmillan Company, page 271:
   • The sunny afternoon was there, like another land. By the path grew tansy and little trees. 1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “chapter 12”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:
2. (obsolete, uncountable) A dish common in the seventeenth century, made of eggs, sugar, rose water, cream, and the juice of herbs (including tansy), baked with butter in a shallow dish. "Originally flavoured with tansy, but by Pepys's time generally having spinach as its predominant flavouring."
   • I had a pretty dinner for them; viz., a brace of stewed carps, six roasted chickens, and a jowle of salmon, hot, for the first course; a tanzy and two neats' tongues, and cheese the second; and were very merry all the afternoon, talking and singing and piping upon the flageolette. 1662, Diary of Samuel Pepys:

Forms

Deriveds

sheep tansy · wild tansy · double tansy · tansy mustard · tansy ragwort · tansyaster · goose tansy · northern dune tansy · bushy seaside tansy · white tansy · common tansy · camphor dune tansy

Relateds

pennyroyal · savin

Translations (48)

da regnfang (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · ga lus na bhfrancach (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · fo reinfann (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · sh вра̀тић (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · cy tansi (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · ru пи́жма (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · de Rainfarn (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · sk vratič (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · pt tanaceto (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · sgs saulėis krislos (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · enm tanesie (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · sh vràtić (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · bg врати́га (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · cmn 菊蒿 (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · fi pietaryrtti (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · sh vràtič (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · sh bùhāč (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · it tanaceto (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · uk пи́жмо (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · da rejnfan (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · mk вратика (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · cs vratič (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · bg врати́ка (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · sh врàтич (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · pl wrotycz (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · sgs čīžmos (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · hu varádics (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · sgs marūns (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · ar حَشِيشَة الدُود (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · mk вратига (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · ca tanarida (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · csb ksãżi kòlnérz (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · pt tanásia (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · fr barbotine (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · sgs žižmars (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · sv renfana (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · vi cây cúc ngài (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · ga franclus (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · sl vratȉč (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · nrf t'naisie (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · csb pòkrãtnik (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · ro vetrice (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · sh бу̀ха̄ч (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · ota صوغلجان اوتی (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · ang helde (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · pt atanásia (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · fr tanaisie (plant of the genus Tanacetum) · tr solucan otu (plant of the genus Tanacetum)

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