A wild mustard plant with yellow flowers that grows as a weed in grain fields.
From Old English 'cerlic' or 'ceorl-leac,' combining 'ceorl' (peasant) and 'leac' (plant/leek). The plant was so common in poor farmland that it became associated with peasants.
Charlock has been a farmer's nightmare for over 2,000 years—Roman agricultural texts complain about it infesting grain crops, and it's still one of the world's worst agricultural weeds because it reproduces explosively!
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.