Forms: α. 1, 6 (med L.) sparagi. β. 6–8 sperage, 7 sperach, sparage, asparage. γ. 6– asparagus. δ. 7 sparagus, 7–8 sparagras, 7–9 sparrowgrass. [L., a. Gr. ἀσπάραγος, properly ἀσφάραγος, of doubtful origin. In med.L. often sparagus, sparagi (OIt. sparagi, sparaci), found in Eng. c. 1000. Thence also mod.It. sparagio, G. spargen, MF. esperage, and Eng. sperage, the common name in 16th and early 17th c., occas., from etymological notions, made sperach (after smallache, smallage, etc.: see ACHE sb.2), or sparage. About 1600 the influence of herbalists and horticultural writers made asparagus familiar, and this in the aphetic form ’sparagus at length displaced sperage, but was itself by popular etymol. corrupted before 1650 to sparagrass, sparrow-grass, which remained the polite name during the 18th c. Botanists still wrote asparagus, but according to Walker, Pron. Dict., 1791, ‘Sparrow-grass is so general that asparagus has an air of stiffness and pedantry.’ During the present century asparagus has returned into literary and polite use, leaving sparrow-grass to the illiterate; though ‘grass’ still occurs in cookery books.]
A plant (Asparagus officinalis, N.O. Liliaceæ) cultivated for the sake of its vernal shoots, which form a well-known delicacy of the table. Bot. The genus which contains this among many other species.
α. c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., I. 188. Genim þysse wyrte wyrttruman þe man sparagi agrestis … nemneð.
1555. Fardle Facions, I. iii. 37. Ther be sene also Sparagi, of no lesse notable bigguenesse.
β. 1548. Turner, Names of Herbes (1881), 17. Asparagus … of the poticaries sparagus, in English Sperage, in Duche Spargen, in French Esperage.
1572. Bossewell, Armorie, III. 19. Some reporte … that of Rammes hornes buried, or hidde in the grounde, is broughte forthe an Herbe, called Asparagus, in Englishe, Sperage.
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong., Des asperges, Sparage.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 27. There is a middle sort of these Sperages, not so ciuill and gentle as the Asparagi of the garden. Ibid. (1606), Sueton., 77. Quicker … than Sparages can be sodden.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 300. Next Nesis stands with Sperage stored.
1669. Digby, Closet Open. (1677), 220. Chop some of the Asparages among it. That hath served for Sparages.
1711. Greenwood, Eng. Gram., 190. Sperage which the Vulgar wrest to Sparograss or Sparrowgrass from Asparagus or Sparagus.
γ. 1548. Turner [see in β]. Ibid. (1551), Herbal (1568), 51. Sperage is called in Latin Asparagus.
1597. Gerard, Herbal, II. cccclvii. 1112. Called … likewise Asparagus after the Latine name.
1632. Massinger, City Madam, III. i. The gardens Where we traffic for asparagus.
1640. Brome, Sparagus Gard., II. ii. 136. Have you this Spring eaten any Asparagus yet?
1732. Arbuthnot, Rules of Diet, 270. Aromatick and balsamick as Saffron, Asparagus, Nutmeg.
1855. W. White, Walk to Land’s End, xi. 232. Around you grow the wild asparagus … and samphire.
δ. 1611. Cotgr., Asperges pierreus, Stone Sparage, wild Sparagus.
1618. Holyday, Juvenal, 221. To gather sperage, or, as it is brokenly called from the Latin’s, sparagus.
1640. Brome, Sparagus Gard., II. ii. 137. I will have Sparagus every meale all the yeare long.
1649. Blithe, Eng. Improver Impr. (1652), 237. [The Hop plant] comes up with severall sprouts like Sparrowgrass.
1667. Pepys, Diary (1879), IV. 307. Brought with me from Fenchurch Street, a hundred of Sparrowgrass. Ibid. (1668), 22 April. Over to the ’sparagus garden.
1706. Phillips, Asparagus, a Plant call’d Sparrow-grass by the Common People.
1710. Steele, Tatler, No. 150, ¶ 6. A Dish of Chickens and Sparagrass.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Sparagrass, Sparagrass may be soon had.
1734. Gibson, Dispens., III. iii. 131. Sparrow-grass.
1738. Swift, Wks., 1755, IV. I. 276. Ripe ’sparagrass, Fit for lad or lass.
1785. Cowper, Lett. In May we shall have ’sparagus.
1801. Southey, in C. Southey, Life, II. 154. Sparagrass (it ought to be spelt so) and artichokes, good with plain butter.
a. 1845. Hood, Town & Country, iv. Grass … That makes no hay—called sparrow-grass By folks of vulgar tongue!
2. Attrib. and Comb., as asparagus-bed, -garden, -tongs, etc. Asparagus-beetle, a small beetle (Crioceris Asparagi) that feeds upon the foliage of the asparagus; asparagus stone (Min.), a yellowish-green variety of apatite.
1761. Fitzgerald, in Phil. Trans., LII. 73. Apple-trees, planted in asparagus beds.
1815. Kirby & Sp., Entomol. (1843), I. 158. The asparagus beetle and its larvæ feed upon the foliage after the heads branch out.
1618. Holyday, Juvenal, 77. Thy patrone’s fish, Deck’d round with sperage-buds.
1642. Declar. Lords & Com., 19 May, 45. Hee should be with them that night at the Sparragus Garden at Supper.
1816. P. Cleaveland, Min., 132. Asparagus stone … in consequence of its so frequently exhibiting an asparagus green color.
1851. Art Jrnl. Catal. Gt. Exhib., 142/1. The Asparagus tongs … an elegant appendage to the dinner-table.
