shamrock

Etymology

It is borrowed from Irish seamróg,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} a diminutive formed with -óg^[7] from seamar (“clover”), also seamair.^[2][7][5] Scottish Gaelic has the corresponding seamrag.^[2][3][8][9] The American Heritage Dictionary traces it to Middle Irish semar and takes this as probably related to Old Norse smári (“clover”), both from a non-Indo-European substrate.^[10] Wiktionary gives the Old Irish forms semróc and semar and derives them from Proto-Celtic *semarā.^[1] Barnhart records an earlier English form shamrote (1571).^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A plant with leaves of three leaflets: c. 1571, in Edmund Campion's history of Ireland,^[2][11] in the form shamrote.^[11] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster date shamrock itself to 1577, in Stanyhurst's description of Ireland.^[11][5]

Semantic evolution

According to a tradition the OED calls late, and Dolan dates to the 17th century, St Patrick used the plant to explain the Trinity, and it became the national emblem of Ireland.^[2][12][9] Which plant was meant, if only one ever was, is uncertain;^[3] it has been identified with hop clover, often taken as the true shamrock, wood sorrel, white clover and black medick.^[5][13] The English Dialect Dictionary records the lesser yellow trefoil as the plant sold as shamrock at Covent Garden on St Patrick's Day, with other plants under the name in Ireland, Oxfordshire and London.^[14] Johnson (1755) called it the Irish name for "three leaved grass", quoting Spenser on Ireland.^[15] England had the jocular name Shamrockshire for Ireland from the 1680s,^[3] and slang used shamrock for an Irishman from 1613,^[16] and in the 2000s for an MDMA pill.^[16] The phrase drown the shamrock, to drink in honour of the shamrock on St Patrick's Day, is recorded from 1888.^[2][17]

Timeline

• c. 1571 – a trifoliate plant, the emblem of Ireland, as shamrote.^[2][11]
• 1577 – the spelling shamrock.^[11][5]
• 1613 – in slang, an Irishman.^[16]
• 1884 – with a defining word, the name of other plants.^[2]
• 1888 – drown the shamrock, to drink on St Patrick's Day.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of several small plants with leaves of three leaflets, such as clover, wood sorrel or black medick, used as the emblem of Ireland: He wore a sprig of shamrock in his lapel.^[13][5][2]
2. A leaf or spray of such a plant.^[17][2]
3. drown the shamrock, also wet the shamrock: to drink in honour of the shamrock on St Patrick's Day.^[2][17]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ Dolan, Terence Patrick (2004), A Dictionary of Hiberno-English: The Irish Use of English, 2nd ed., Dublin: Gill & Macmillan
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
17. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press