žerchej
Upper Sorbian
Etymology
From Proto-Slavic *žerjuxa from *žerti because the herb “ate away” the mouth, or from Proto-Slavic *režuxa from *režjuxa from *rězati because the herb “cut” the tongue. Cognate to Czech řeřicha (Old Czech řeřucha, and dialectal Czech řeřucha, řežucha, režucha, jeřicha), Slovak žerucha, Polish rzeżucha (Old Polish rzeżucha, żerzucha, rzeżycha, rzerucha, rzerzucha, żerucha), Ukrainian жеру́ха (žerúxa), Russian жеру́ха, режу́ха, резу́ха (žerúxa, režúxa, rezúxa) (the last two pre-1918: рѣжу́ха, рѣзу́ха (rěžúxa, rězúxa)), Serbo-Croatian rèžuha / рѐжуха, rježuha / рјежуха (but usually with Ekavism in Ijekavian), (seemingly obsolete) Slovene reriha, all denoting cruciferous plants.
Noun
žerchej f (genitive žerchwje, dative žerchwi, accusative žerchej, instrumental žerchwju, locative žerchwi, diminutive žerchwička)
- cress, rocket
References
- Boryś, Wiesław (2005), “rzeżucha”, in Słownik etymologiczny języka polskiego (in Polish), Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, →ISBN, page 535
- “редух”, in Български етимологичен речник [Bulgarian Etymological Dictionary] (in Bulgarian), volume 6, Sofia: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 2002, page 206