duckweed
Pluralduckweeds, duckweed
- 1Any of several small, simplified floating water plants of the subfamily Lemnoideae, in the arum family Araceae.
Like confetti scattered across a pond, where each tiny speck is a separate floating plant.
By late summer, duckweed had blanketed the still water behind the old dam.
Some farmers harvest duckweed as a protein-rich feed for their livestock.
Note
The name says what the plant is for: duck plus weed, supposedly because ducks and other waterfowl eat it. Middle English called it dokemete, "duck-food," an idea that survives in the synonyms duckmeat and ducksmeat. Botanically it belongs to the arum family, though its reduced body is a flat floating frond rather than stem and leaf. Use it uncountably for the green film on a pond; duckweeds names the different kinds.
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Origin
A compound of "duck" and "weed," supposedly named because ducks and other waterfowl often eat it. Compare Middle English "dokemete," literally "duck-food."