Also 5 swynescars, 6 swineskerce, swine carse. [Cf. G. schwein(s)kresse. Through the phonetic similarity of such forms as swinescres, -kers, -kars, and swinesgres, -gers, -gars, this word and SWINE’S GRASS were formerly synonymous.] † a. = SWINE’S GRASS, knotgrass. b. The cruciferous plant Senebiera Coronopus; called also buckshorn and wart-cress. c. Fool’s watercress, Helosciadium nodiflorum. local. d. Ragwort, Senecio Jacobæa. local. e. Nipplewort, Lapsana communis.
c. 1400. MS. Laud 553, lf. 8 b. Centinodium is an herbe þat me cleputh centinodie or sparitonge or swynescars that herbe groweth welney ouer alle & hath mony knottes in on stalk.
1541. Bk. Properties Herbs, D viij. Lingua hi[r]cina. This is called Buckeshorne or Swineskerce.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, I. lxiv. 95. In some places of England they call it [sc. Coronopus Ruellii] Swynescressis.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, App., Swine Carse is knotgrasse.
1700. Wallace, Acct. Orkney, ii. 17. Ambrosia campestris repens, Swines cresses.
1803. Sir J. E. Smith, Sowerby’s Eng. Bot., XVI. 1130. Senecio Jacobæa. Common Ragwort…. In Yorkshire this plant is sometimes called Swine’s Cresses.
1850. Miss Pratt, Comm. Things Sea-side, i. 87. The common swine-cress, or wart-cress of our inland waste places. Ibid. (1857), Flower. Pl., III. 218. L[apsana] communis (common Nipplewort) … is sometimes called Swine’s-cress.
