ramson

Meanings

1. A plant, Allium ursinum, a wild relative of chives and garlic.

Etymology

Back-formation from ramsons; compare Middle English ramson (originally plural, taken as singular); Old English hramesan, plural of hramsa (“onion, broad-leafed garlic”), from Proto-West Germanic *hramusō, from Proto-Germanic *hramusô (“onion, leek”), from Proto-Indo-European *kermus-, *kremus- (“wild garlic”). Cognate with Scots ramps (“wild garlic”), Dutch rams (“ramson”), Danish rams (“ramson”), Swedish ramslök (“wild garlic”). See buckrams.