Some thoughts about weeds

The word "weed" comes to us from Middle English and has Flemish, Frisian, and AngloSaxon roots. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) says that "the ulterior etymology is unknown." The word appears in English literature at least by the time of Alfred in the 9th Century. The early usage appears to be comipatible with the first definition given by the Oxford English Dictionary: "Weed 1. A herbaceous plant not valued for use or beauty, growing wild and rank, and regarded as cumbering the ground or hindering the growth of superior vegetation." It should be pointed out that another word, "weed," meaning clothing, garb, armour, or covering (e.g., "widow's weeds") has a different etymology and comes from Teutonic and Scandinavian roots.