cowslip

• couslip, cowslippe (obsolete)

From Middle English cowslyppe, from Old English cūslyppe (“cowslip”), from cū (“cow”) + slyppe (“paste, viscid substance”), related to Old English slūpan (“to slip, glide, move softly”). Compare oxlip.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkaʊ.slɪp/
• Hyphenation: cow‧slip

cowslip (plural cowslips)

1. A low-growing plant, Primula veris, with yellow flowers.
   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

     Where the bee sucks, there suck I: / In a cowslip's bell I lie;

2. Any of several other plants related or similar in appearance
   1. Primula deorum, a flowering plant known as God's cowslip and rila cowslip
   2. Primula florindae, a flowering plant known as giant cowslip and Tibetan cowslip
   3. Primula sikkimensis, a flowering plant known as Himalayan cowslip and Sikkim cowslip
   4. (Canada, US, regional) marsh marigold, Caltha palustris, a plant in the buttercup family, growing in wet, boggy locations.
   5. Pulmonaria angustifolia, blue cowslip or narrow-leaved lungwort
3. Short for cowslip tea: a kind of green tea; an herbal tea made with cowslip flowers.

• (Primula veris): paigle, herb Peter
• (Caltha palustris): marsh marigold, kingcup, mayflower, mollyblobs, pollyblobs, horse blob