moss

en-noun

moss (countable and uncountable, plural mosses)

From Middle English mos, from Old English mos (“bog, marsh, moss”), from Proto-West Germanic *mos (“marsh, moss”), from Proto-Germanic *musą (“marsh, moss”), from Proto-Indo-European *mews- (“moss”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Moas (“moss”), West Frisian moas (“moss”), Dutch mos (“moss”), German Low German Moss (“moss”), German Moos (which shows the same polysemy of "moss" and "bog, fen"), Danish mos (“moss”), Swedish mossa (“moss”), Icelandic mosi (“moss”), Latin muscus (“moss”), Russian мох (mox, “moss”), Polish mech. Doublet of mousse.

cypress moss

Hypnum cupressiforme; Lycopodium alpinum

flowering moss (Pyxidanthera barbulata; Portulaca grandiflora;

moss crop

Eriophorum vaginatum; Eriophorum polystachion; Argentina anserina, syn. Potentilla anserina; Eleocharis palustris, syn. Scirpus caespitosus

willow moss

Hypnaceae, possibly Taxiphyllum barbieri

Any of various small, green, seedless plants growing on the ground or on the surfaces of trees, stones, etc.; now specifically, a plant of the phylum Bryophyta (formerly division Musci).

(countable) A kind or species of such plants.


moss

en-verb

moss (third-person singular simple present mosses, present participle mossing, simple past and past participle mossed)

mosses (present singular third-person)
mossing (participle present)
mossed (participle past)
mossed (past)

Although I really shouldn't... I feel like cracking this stout and just mossing in the sun with a splif. Shit, maan. Its^([sic]) relaxation time!

2014 August 29, @7oneZ_FuckTDSB, Twitter:

The Huffington Post Canada
w:The Huffington Post Canada

(intransitive, MTE, slang) To relax, chill out.


bryophyte

/ˈbɹʌɪ̯.əˌfʌɪt/

From Bryophyta, from Ancient Greek βρύον (brúon, “moss”) + φυτόν (phutón, “plant”) ( + -phyte).

Without going into their reasons, Bold, Alexopoulos, & DelBevoryas (1980) and Crandall-Stotler (1980) believe that there are at least three independent lines of bryophytes and that this is best reflected by establishing three divisions - the Bryophyta (mosses), Hepatophyta (liverworts), and Anthocerotophyta (hornworts).

1993, Wilson Nichols Stewart, Paleobotany and the Evolution of Plants, page 77:

2002, William R. Buck, Bryophytes, entry in Niles Eldredge (editor), Life on Earth, page 202,
Because of their small size and often delicate structure, bryophytes have a poor fossil record, dating back only about 290 million years.

And so it was that I was introduced to Len Ellis and the quiet world of bryophytes – mosses to the rest of us.

2003, Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything, BCA, published 2003, page 312:

(botany) Any plant of the division Bryophyta, defined sensu lato to comprise the mosses, liverworts and hornworts and corresponding to all embryophytes that are not vascular plants.

briofito

member of the Bryophyta; moss, liverwort, or hornwort


redshank

Saltings ringing with the redshank's cry.

1967, J. A. Baker, The Peregrine, page 41:

Any of two species of Old World wading bird in the genus Tringa that have long red legs.


sphagnum

From the genus name, which is from Ancient Greek σφάγνος (sphágnos).

[T]he ground up here is waterlogged and riddled with potholes, holes beneath the spongy coral fern, hidden holes throughout the sphagnum.

1999, Julia Leigh, The Hunter, Faber & Faber 2012, p. 32

Any of various widely distributed mosses, of genus Sphagnum, which slowly decompose to form peat.


peat moss

en-noun

peat moss (countable and uncountable, plural peat mosses)


sphagnous

en-adj

sphagnous (comparative more sphagnous, superlative most sphagnous)

more sphagnous (comparative)
most sphagnous (superlative)

Pertaining to, or consisting of, sphagnum.


moss lawn

A lawn, or a portion of a lawn, that is covered with moss rather than with grass.


bryid

(zoology) Any moss in the family Bryidae.


sphagnid

(zoology) Any sphagnum moss in the subclass Sphagnidae.


tetraphid

(zoology) Any moss in the family Tetraphidaceae.


bog moss

en-noun

bog moss (countable and uncountable, plural bog mosses)


black moss

black moss (usually uncountable, plural black mosses)

1823, Agriculture, article in (editor), Encyclopaedia Britannica, 6th Edition, Volume 1, page 373,
There are, however, two general kinds of mosses; black moss, and whitish or yellow moss. The black moss is originally of a mahogany colour, but speedily becomes black upon exposure to the air.

Any of numerous species of dark-coloured mosses (Bryophyta), possibly species of the genera Grimmia, Andreaea, Syntrichia, Cinclidotus.


feathermoss

feathermoss (countable and uncountable, plural feathermosses)

A species of moss common in boreal forests, Pleurozium schreberi.


haircap

Any of various mosses of the family Polytrichaceae.


smoothcap

Any of various mosses of the genus Atrichum.


apple moss

apple moss (countable and uncountable, plural apple mosses)

Any of various mosses of the genus Bartramia.


fountain apple moss

The moss was tall, its stems measuring three or four inches, branched and matted together; the leaves were broad and tapering, of a yellow-green colour; and the long fruit-stalks bore large round reddish urns. It was undoubtedly the Fountain Apple moss (Bartramia fontana, fig. 9).

1861, Margaret Plues, Rambles in Search of Mosses, page 39:

Philonotis fontana, the fountain Apple Moss, is common near springs and in wet places, and has stems 1-6 in., with reddish-black radicles ; leaves ovate-acuminate, short ; nerve almost excurrent ; perigonial leaves, obtuse, nerveless […]

1883, The Microscopical News and Northern Microscopist, volume 3:

Flora in spring reaches of the Po River is represented by species associated with clear waters and constant discharge, including thick cushions of epilithic mosses such as Schleicher's thread-moss (Bryum schleicheri) and the fountain apple-moss (Philonotis fontana) […]

2009, Klement Tockner, Urs Uehlinger, Christopher T. Robinson, Rivers of Europe, →ISBN:

Philonotis fontana, an epilithic moss in the family Bartramiaceae.


hoary fringe moss

Trichostomum (Fringe-moss) is less frequently met with; some species occur in mountainous districts and one, Hoary fringe-moss, we have found on our own heath.

1831, Priscilla Wakefield, An Introduction to Botany, 10th edition, page 224:

The Oval-fruited Fringe moss is peculiar to the hills of Scotland, Wales and Ireland; the Dark Mountain Fringe moss grows on wet rocks by rivulets in similar situations; Slender Mountain Fringe moss prefers exposed places, as does also the Woolly Fringe moss; the Green Mountain Fringe moss favours rocks; and the Hoary Fringe moss is so kind as to grow on this rough wall.

1861, Margaret Plues, Rambles in Search of Mosses, page 21:

R. canescens, the hoary Fringe Moss, is found on sandy heaths and stony places in loose yellowish-green patches […]

1883, The Microscopical News and Northern Microscopist, volume 3, page 66:

Racomitrium canescens, a moss in the family Grimmiaceae.


woolly fringe moss

The typical haunts are the windswept summit plateaux or broad ridges and upper spurs of the higher hills, where short montane grassland, woolly fringe moss carpets, lichen heath, or open stony fell-fields cover most of the ground.

2010, D. A. Ratcliffe, Bird Life of Mountain and Upland, →ISBN, page 191:

Flat ground at the top of Allt Creag an Leth-choin carries prostrate vegetation dominated by woolly fringe moss with some crowberry.

2012, Adam Watson, Human Impacts on the Northern Cairngorms, →ISBN, page 12:

moss of species Racomitrium lanuginosum (family Grimmiaceae).


moss-grown

en-adj

moss-grown (comparative more moss-grown, superlative most moss-grown)

more moss-grown (comparative)
most moss-grown (superlative)

/ˈmɔsˌɡɹoʊn/

From moss + grown. Sense 2 (“old; old-fashioned, out of date”) refers to the fact that moss will often grow on an object that has remained outdoors in one place for some time.

To find one's self suddenly translated from the wild, flowery prairie into the heart of an aged, moss-grown village, of such foreign aspect, withal, was by no means easy to reconcile with one's notions of reality.

1838, [Edmund Flagg], chapter XXV, in The Far West: Or, A Tour beyond the Mountains. […] In Two Volumes, volume II, New York, N.Y.: Published by Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 32:

It was reserved for chivalry, embodying the spirit of christianity, to demolish this old, moss-grown bastile of the social state, and restore its captives to freedom, and the rights and prerogatives of freedom.

1840, “Chivalry and the Crusades”, in The American Miscellany of Popular Tales, Essays, Sketches of Character, Poetry, and Jeux d’Esprit, volume II, number 38, London: G. Berger, […]; Simpkin, Marshall, & Co.; […], →OCLC, page 134, column 1:

The native State of Patrick Henry Hanway was a moss-grown member of the republic and had been one of the original thirteen. It possessed with other impedimenta a moss-grown aristocracy that borrowed money, devoured canvasbacks, drank burgundy, wore spotless tow in summer, clung to the duello, and talked of days of greatness which had been before the war. It carried moss-grown laws upon its statute books [...]

1904, Alfred Henry Lewis, “How a President is Bred”, in The President: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: A[lfred] S[mith] Barnes and Company, →OCLC, page 24:

[T]he magnificent young poet [Alfred, Lord Tennyson] of the bust by [Thomas] Woolner in Trinity College Library had grown gradually more like, if never really like, the dim and moss-grown mystic of the painting by [George Frederic] Watts in Trinity College Hall.

1932, “Introduction”, in F[rank] L[aurence] Lucas, compiler, Alfred, Lord Tennyson: An Anthology, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: At the University Press, →OCLC, page xx:

(figuratively) Old; old-fashioned, out of date.


climacium

Any of the genus Climacium of tree mosses


tree moss

(biology) A moss (or possibly a lichen) that grows on trees


pine-moss

en-noun

pine-moss (countable and uncountable, plural pine-mosses)

"You must then make yourself a wig of pine-moss and go up to the king's palace, which is close by; there you must ask for service."

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 221:

Any species of moss that grows on pine trees.


polytrichon

A European moss, great golden maidenhair or great goldilocks, Polytrichum commune


Indian feather moss

Indian feather moss (plural Indian feather mosses)

From Indian + feather + moss, thus called because the calyptra of the plant allegedly resembles the feather in some Native American headdresseshttp://floranorthamerica.org/Timmia_megapolitana_subsp._megapolitana

moss of the species Timmia megapolitana.


dicranid

Any bryopsid moss of the subclass Dicranidae, of the class Bryopsida.


fire moss

A species of moss (Ceratodon purpureus), also known as redshank or purple horn toothed moss.


humpbacked elves

Any of various mosses of the genus Buxbaumia.


dung moss

dung moss (countable and uncountable, plural dung mosses)