Other forms: sedges
Sedge is a grassy plant that grows in wet ground. A sedge bed, sedge along the bank, cut the sedge.
The way to tell it from grass is the stem, which is triangular in cross-section, hence the old rhyme that sedges have edges. Sedge beds are among the richest habitats for birds in Britain.
1nounsedgeA grassy plant that grows in wet ground.
“Tall sedge grew along the edge of the marsh, where the ground was always wet.”
sedge is a plant.
Old English secg comes from a Germanic root related to a word for cutting, from the sharp edges of the leaves.
Middle English
segge
English, today
sedge
From Middle English segge. From Middle English segge, from Old English seċġ, from Proto-West Germanic sagi, from Proto-Germanic sagjaz, from Proto-Indo-European sak- (“marsh plant”). Cognate with Dutch zegge and German Segge, dialectal German Saher (“reeds”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA