zizaniahttp://www.oed.com/dictionary/zizania_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_usezizania, n.
Revised 2021

zizanianoun

  1. 1.
    1526–1809
    † A weed that grows among wheat; tares, darnel; = zizany n. 1. Also figurative: a pernicious influence or unwanted element; cf. tare n.1 3. Obsolete.
    Quot. a1398 shows a use of a form of the Latin word in an English context.
    1. [(a1398)
      Ray hatte zysannia and is a certein herbe... He..is liche to whete whanne it is in grasse.
      J. Trevisa, translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus, De Proprietatibus Rerum (British Library Add. MS. 27944) (1975) vol. II. xvii. cxciv. 1089]
      [Composed a1398]
    2. 1526
      Zizania is an euyll wede yt groweth in the wheate, and corrupteth whan the weder is drye.
      Grete Herball cdlxxix. sig. Bb.ijv/1
    3. 1562
      There is great lyknes betwene whete and zizaniam, which we call lolium.
      W. Turner, 2nd Part Herball f. 41
    4. 1570
      The doctrine of the Bohemians, whiche he termeth by the name of Zizania.
      J. Foxe, Actes & Monumentes (revised edition) vol. I. 829/2
    5. 1612
      With their Zizaniaes of faction, they make boot & havocke of Catholickes estates.
      T. James, Iesuits Downefall 8
    6. 1744
      One would think they were of the Devil's own sowing, the ancient Zizania.
      D. Hillman in Tusser's Five Hundred Points Husbandry 32 (note)
    7. 1809
      Some indeed think, that because the servants distinguished the zizania from the wheat, there was no resemblance between them.
      C. Simeon, Evangelical & Pharisiac Righteousness Compared 17
  2. 2.
    1756–
    Botany. An aquatic grass of the genus Zizania; wild rice. Also (in form Zizania): the genus itself.
    1. 1756
      The larger Zizania, with a scattered panicle.
      P. Browne, Civil & Natural History of Jamaica ii. ii. 340
    2. 1829
      The zizania or Canada-rice.
      T. Castle, Introduction to Systematical & Physiological Botany 157
    3. 1847
      The Menomonies are called ‘Folles Avoines’, or Wild Oats, from the wild rice or zizania which their country produces.
      J. C. Prichard, Research Physical History of Mankind (ed. 3) vol. V. vi. v. §6. 395
    4. 1901
      In Zizania and Bromus, Zea and other grasses the epidermis is followed by sclerenchyma sheath.
      L. H. Pammel et al., Grasses Iowa 18
    5. 1991
      Another genus is Zizania, a wild plant whose grains were collected by North American Indians as an important source of food.
      R. H. M. Langer & G. D. Hill, Agric. Plants (ed. 2) iv. 139
    6. 2009
      Wetlands that exhibited the greatest loss of Zizania tended to have higher levels of residential development within their watershed.
      Wetlands vol. 29 724

zizania, n. was revised in March 2021.

zizania, n. was last modified in December 2024.