Indian chickweed
- noun
- /ˈɪndiən ˈʧɪkˌwiːd/
- US
:
hierba india
- The lawn was quickly covered by Indian chickweed after the spring rains.
Examples
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She identified the small greenish-white flowers as those of Indian chickweed during her field survey.
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The Indian chickweed grows abundantly in my garden.
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Gardeners often struggle to control Indian chickweed because it spreads so rapidly.
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I noticed some Indian chickweeds sprouting in the backyard.
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Gardeners often struggle to control Indian chickweed because it spreads so rapidly.
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She identified the small greenish-white flowers as those of Indian chickweed during her field survey.
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The lawn was quickly covered by Indian chickweed after the spring rains.
Synonyms
An annual ground-hugging weed that has leaves in circles and small pale green flowers
A low plant that spreads across the ground with small greenish white flowers often in gardens and roadsides
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is a straightforward adjectival modifier + noun: 'Indian' describes a variety or origin and 'chickweed' names the plant, so the overall meaning 'a type of chickweed associated with Indian/origin' is directly derivable from the parts. This kind of descriptive combination is cross-linguistically common and a B1 learner who knows both words will understand it refers to a specific kind of chickweed (though the exact referent of 'Indian'—India vs. indigenous—may require context).
Etymology
Indian chickweed may come from two simple images: chickweed was a name for small plants that chickens liked to eat, and Indian was added long ago to show the plant came from the Americas. So the name helps you picture a low, spreading weed found in North America.
