Now dial. Forms: 4–5 starre, (? 5 stair), 5, 9 stare, 8–9 starr, 4– star. [a. ON. stǫr-r fem. (gen. starar; Norw. storr, Sw. starr, Da. stær).] A name given locally to various coarse seaside grasses and sedges, as Psamma arenaria and Carex arenaria. Also star-grass.
c. 1300. Havelok, 939. He bar þe turues, he bar þe star.
1322. Bolton Priory Compotus, 445 [455]. Pro starre empt’ et cariat’ ad grangiam de Penisthorpe vs.
1419. Mem. Ripon (Surtees), III. 147. Et in iiij carect. de Star empt. cum car. ejusdem.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 64/2. Cegge, or stare [Winch. starre], carix.
a. 1500. in Archæologia, I. 175. Item in Marisco potest Dominus habere Stair, pro coopertura domorum.
1712. N. Blundell, Diary (1895), 100. As I was going to my Setters of Star to hinder ye Sand from recking up my Grand Water-Course. Ibid. (1722), 186. For Cuting the Starr.
1742. Act 15 Geo. II., c. 33 § 6. A certain Rush or Shrub called Starr or Bent.
1792. J. Lightfoot, Flora Scotica, II. 560. Turfy-pink-leav’d Carex. Anglis. Starr. Scotis.
1823. E. Moor, Suffolk Words, s.v. Bent, Bent or Starr.
1881. Gregor, Folk-Lore, ix. 51. A bunch of stars or bruckles to redd the tobacco pipes.
1895. ‘M. E. Francis,’ Frieze & Fustian, 284. It is on the sand-hills that I generally find him, bundles of blue-green star-grass, ready to be planted, lying about him.
a. 1897. J. Macdonald, Place Names W. Aberd. (1899), 308. In this part of the country the name Starrs is applied to rushes.
