purslane

[ purs-leyn, -lin ]

/ ˈpɜrs leɪn, -lɪn /

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noun

a low, trailing plant, Portulaca oleracea, having yellow flowers, used as a salad plant and potherb.Compare purslane family.

any other plant of the purslane family.

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Origin of purslane

1350–1400; Middle English purcelan(e) <Middle French porcelaine<Late Latin porcillāgin- (stem of porcillāgō), for Latin porcillāca, variant of portulācaportulaca

Words nearby purslane

purse-proud, purser, purse seine, purse strings, purse-string suture, purslane, purslane family, pursuance, pursuant, pursue, pursued

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use purslane in a sentence

Purslane is one of the kitchen garden plants most widely diffused throughout the old world from the earliest times.
Origin of Cultivated Plants|Alphonse De Candolle
A very small cuscuta also occurs almost exclusively parasitic on the common purslane.
Early Western Travels 1748-1846, Volume XVI|Various
In among the sweet peas were many little tufts of purslane, and purslane is very good to eat, as anybody knows who has tried it.
Among the Night People|Clara Dillingham Pierson
In Fig. 272, a Purslane-flower, the same parts are adnate to or consolidated with the ovary up to its middle.
The Elements of Botany|Asa Gray

The flora includes purslane, rock roses and several species of ferns and mosses.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 7|Various

British Dictionary definitions for purslane

purslane

/ (ˈpɜːslɪn, -leɪn) /

noun

a weedy portulacaceous plant, Portulaca oleracea, with small yellow flowers and fleshy leaves, which are used in salads and as a potherb

any of various similar or related plants, such as sea purslane and water purslane

Word Origin for purslane

C14 purcelane, from Old French porcelaine, from Late Latin porcillāgō, from Latin porcillāca, variant of portulāca

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012