tussock

English

WOTD – 13 December 2009

Etymology

Uncertain. Likely from or related to tusk +‎ -ock (diminutive suffix). Compare Middle High German zūsach (“thicket”), a derivative of Middle High German zūse (“lock of hair”). Compare also Scottish Gaelic dosag (“little tuft”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈtʌs.ək/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌsək

Noun

tussock (plural tussocks)

1. A tuft or clump of green grass or similar verdure, forming a small hillock.
   • 1894 May, Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, London, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published June 1894, →OCLC:

     An Indian grazing ground is all rocks and scrub and tussocks and little ravines, among which the herds scatter and disappear.

   • 1895, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, The Stark Munro Letters: […], London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC:

     Next morning I was off to Lochtully, which, as you know, is in the north of Perthshire. It stands three miles from the station, a great gray pinnacled house, with two towers cocking out above the fir woods, like a hare’s ears from a tussock of grass.

Derived terms

Derived terms

• blue tussock (Poa poiformis)
• ficus tussock moth
• hard tussock (Festuca novaezelandiae)
• nassella tussock (Nassella tichotoma)
• plumed tussock (Cortaderia richardii, Arundo richardii)
• red tussock (Chionochloa rubra)
• serrated tussock (Nassella trichotoma)
• sweet tussock (Poa bulbosa)
• tussock bellflower (Campanula carpatica)
• tussock caterpillar (Lymantriinae)
• tussocked
• tussocker
• tussock grass, tussockgrass
• tussock moth (Lymantriinae)
• tussock sedge (Carex stricta)
• tussocky
• yellow tussock (Euproctis lutea)

Translations

tuft or clump of grass or verdure

• Basque: belar-sasi
• Bulgarian: туфа (bg) f (tufa)
• Dutch: pol (nl) f, graspol (nl) f
• Finnish: mätäs (fi), tupas (fi)
• French: tussack
• Galician: touza (gl) f, toutizo (gl) m
• German: Grasbüschel (de) n
• Icelandic: þúfa f
• Ingrian: mätäs, könkörä
• Irish: tom m, tortóg f
• Maori: wi, wīwī
• Polish: kępa (pl) f
• Russian: ко́чка (ru) f (kóčka)