grunsel

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English gronsell, grounsel, grownsel, variant of groundselle. More at groundsill.

Noun

grunsel (plural grunsels)

  1. Obsolete spelling of groundsill: threshold.
    • 1667 John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book I (lines 458–61):
      Next came one
      Who mourn'd in earnest, when the Captive Ark
      Maim'd his brute Image, head and hands lopt off
      In his own Temple, on the grunsel edge,
      Where he fell flat […]
    • 1804, William Herbert, Miscellaneous Poems, Vol. I, "Sir Ebba":
      South beside the altar's ledge
      Fair Zenild drew her knife
      North upon the grunsel edge
      Sir Schinnild lost his life.

Etymology 2

From Middle English grundeswülie. More at groundsel.

Noun

grunsel (plural grunsels)

  1. Variant of groundsel, any of several species of Senecio, a genus of the daisy family.
    • 1799, William Wordsworth, The Two-Part Prelude, Book I:
      Basked in the sun, or plunged into thy stream's [1.20]
      Alternate, all a summer's day, or coursed
      Over the sandy fields, and dashed the flowers
      Of yellow grunsel […]
    • 1803, Dorothy Wordsworth, Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland, First Week:
      Travelled for some miles along the open country, which was all without hedgerows, sometimes arable, sometimes moorish, and often whole tracts covered with grunsel.
    • 1845, Thomas Cooper, The Purgatory of Suicides, Book the Fourth, Stanza IX:
      If thou return not, Gammer o'er her pail
      evermore the petlings, with sad brow,
      Will look for thee upon the holly bough,
      Where thou didst chirp thy signal note, ere on
      The lowly grunsel thou didst light […]
    • 1841–1864, John Clare, "We passed by green closes" (one of the "Knight Transcripts", copied from Clare's manuscript poems written while he was involuntarily confined at the Northampton General Lunatic Asylum):
      Blue skippers in sunny hours ope and shut
      Where wormwood and grunsel flowers by the cart ruts […]
    • 1894, Frederic Morrell Holmes, "Some Unfasionable Slums: Second Round—South London, in The Quiver: The Illustrated Magazine for Sunday and General Reading:
      "Yes; Messrs. So-and-so lets me go in their grounds and get the bird-seed. Yer see, I got grun'sel here, and plantain and chick-weed"

Anagrams

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