Word.ws English Dictionary

brankursine

brankursine noun: one of two species of acanthus, Acanthus spinosus or Acanthus mollis; bear's breech.

Noun

brankursine (uncountable)

  1. One of two species of acanthus, Acanthus spinosus or Acanthus mollis; bear's breech.
    • The roots and leaves of brankursine abound with a soft, insipid, mucilaginous substance; which is readily extracted by coction or infusion in water, and remains entire upon evaporating the liquid.1784, William Lewis, An Experimental History of the Materia Medica, page 11
    • The editor of the Wirtemberg Pharmacopoeia observes, that the leaves of acanthus brankursine or bears breech , give a more durable green tincture to spirit than those of any other herb.1813, James Haigh, The Dier's Assistant in the Art of Dying and Woollen Goods, page 247

Origin of brankursine

From French branc-ursine, branch-ursine, from Latin branca (“claw”) + ursinus (“belonging to a bear”) (from ursus (“bear”)), i.e. "bear's claw", which its leaves resemble. Compare branch.

Questions about brankursine

What does brankursine mean?
Brankursine means one of two species of acanthus, Acanthus spinosus or Acanthus mollis; bear's breech.
What part of speech is brankursine?
Brankursine is a noun.

Words near brankursine in the dictionary

  1. branked
  2. branking
  3. branks
  4. Branksome
  5. Brankston
  6. brankursine
  7. branky
  8. branle
  9. branles
  10. branless
  11. branlike

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: brankursine (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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