What is "tansy"

Tansy \Tan"sy\, n. [OE. tansaye, F. tanaise; cf. It. & Sp. tanaceto, NL. tanacetum, Pg. atanasia, athanasia, Gr. 'aqanasi`a immortality, fr. 'aqa`natos immortal; 'a priv. + qa`natos death.]

1. (Bot.) Any plant of the composite genus Tanacetum. The common tansy ( Tanacetum vulgare) has finely divided leaves, a strong aromatic odor, and a very bitter taste. It is used for medicinal and culinary purposes.

2. A dish common in the seventeenth century, made of eggs, sugar, rose water, cream, and the juice of herbs, baked with butter in a shallow dish. [Obs.]
   --Pepys.

   Double tansy (Bot.), a variety of the common tansy with the leaves more dissected than usual.

   Tansy mustard (Bot.), a plant ( Sisymbrium canescens) of the Mustard family, with tansylike leaves.

perennial herb native to northern Eurasia, mid-13c., from Old French tanesie (13c., Modern French tanaisie), from Vulgar Latin *tanaceta (neuter plural mistaken for fem. singular), from Late Latin tanacetum "wormwood," from shortened form of Greek athanasia "immortality," from athanatos "immortal," from a- "not," privative prefix, + thanatos "death" (see thanatology). So called probably for its persistence. English folklore associates it with pregnancy, either as an aid to contraception or to provoke miscarriage.

n. 1 A herbaceous plant with yellow flowers, of the genus ''Tanacetum'', especially (taxlink Tanacetum vulgare species noshow=1). 2 (context uncountable obsolete English) A dish common in the seventeenth century, made of eggs, sugar, rose water, cream, and the juice of herbs (including tansy), baked with butter in a shallow dish.

n. common perennial aromatic herb native to Eurasia having buttonlike yellow flower heads and bitter-tasting pinnate leaves sometimes used medicinally [syn: golden buttons, scented fern, Tanacetum vulgare]

Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) is a perennial, herbaceous flowering plant of the aster family, native to temperate Europe and Asia. It has been introduced to other parts of the world including North America, and in some areas has become invasive. It is also known as common tansy, bitter buttons, cow bitter, or golden buttons.

Tansy is a 1921 British silent drama film directed by Cecil Hepworth and starring Alma Taylor, Gerald Ames and James Carew. The film was based on a popular rural novel of the time by Tickner Edwardes, and was filmed largely on location on the Sussex Downs.

Tansy is a rare survival among Hepworth's feature-length films of the late 1910s and early 1920s, most of which are believed to have been irretrievably lost following Hepworth's bankruptcy in 1924, when his film stock was seized and melted down by administrators to release its saleable silver nitrate content. A full print of the film is held in the British Film Institute's National Archive.

Hepworth once remarked: "It was always in the back of my mind from the very beginning that I was to make English pictures with all the English countryside for background and with English idiom throughout." Critical assessment of Tansy tends to confirm the ability to capture beautiful English rural landscapes on film as Hepworth's greatest skill, albeit sometimes to the detriment of dramatic narrative when the scenery seems to command more of his attention than the actors or the plot.

The tansy is a plant.

Tansy may also refer to:

• Tansy Davies (born 1973), British composer
• Tansy Saylor, a main character in Conjure Wife, a supernatural horror novel by Fritz Leiber
  • Tansy Taylor, in the film adaptation Night of the Eagle
• Teton River (Montana), also known as the Tansy River
• Tansy (film), a 1921 British silent drama
• Tansy, an anthropomorphic hedgehog appearing in Brian Jacques's Redwall series