thistle
/θɪsl̩/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.24 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Any of several perennial composite plants, especially of genera Cirsium, Carduus, Cynara, or Onopordum, having prickly leaves and showy flower heads with prickly bracts.
noun
This plant seen as the national emblem of Scotland.
noun
The Order of the Thistle, or membership thereof.
name
A surname.
Example Sentences
- "Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field [...]."
- "I wasn’t born of a whistle, or milked from a thistle at twilight / No; I was all horns and thorns, sprung out fully formed, knock-kneed and upright"
- "Here's a passage which will please you: ‘It is said that when rich he twice refused the thistle.’"
Etymology
From Middle English thistel, from Old English þistel, from Proto-West Germanic *þistil, from Proto-Germanic *þistilaz. *þīh- from *teyg-, which is a variant of Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- (“to prick”); from this same Proto-Indo-European root comes English stick. Cognates include Scots thrissel, German Distel, Dutch distel, and Old Norse and Icelandic þistill.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *(s)teyg-, thistel, þistel, *þistil, *þistilaz, Distel
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
artichoke thistle
blessed milk thistle
blessed thistle
bull thistle
burr thistle
Canada thistle
carline thistle
common sow thistle