Meaning

noun any of various plants of the family Cruciferae with edible leaves that have a pungent taste

noun pungent leaves of any of numerous cruciferous herbs

originFrom Middle English cresse, crasse, from Old English cressa, cærse (“cress”), from Proto-West Germanic *krassjō, from Proto-Germanic *krasjô (“cress”). Cognate with West Frisian kers (“cress”), Dutch kers (“cress”), German Kresse (“cress”), Danish karse (“cress”), Swedish krasse (“cress”), Icelandic krassi (“cress”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0