brankursine

English

Etymology

From French branc-ursine, branch-ursine, from Latin branca (“claw”) + ursinus (“belonging to a bear”) (from ursus (“bear”)), i.e. "bear's claw", which its leaves resemble. Compare branch.

Noun

brankursine (uncountable)

1. One of two species of acanthus, Acanthus spinosus or Acanthus mollis; bear's breech.
   • 1784, William Lewis, An Experimental History of the Materia Medica, page 11:

     The roots and leaves of brankursine abound with a soft, insipid, mucilaginous substance; which is readily extracted by coction or infusion in water, and remains entire upon evaporating the liquid.

   • 1813, James Haigh, The Dier's Assistant in the Art of Dying and Woollen Goods, page 247:

     The editor of the Wirtemberg Pharmacopoeia observes, that the leaves of acanthus brankursine or bears breech , give a more durable green tincture to spirit than those of any other herb.

   • 1882, Ouida (Marie Louise De la Ramée ), In Maremma, page 252:

     The soil of Maremma was treacherous as Iago, and, though she made no count of it, her days were full of danger as the timid snipe's for whom the fox waits in the brushwood, and the muzzle of the gun slips through the reeds, and the hawk watches above the air, and the dog steals through the fennel and brankursine .