erica

Note: Assuming that Greek ereíkē goes back to *wereikā, it must bear some relationship to a group of words attested in Celtic and Balto-Slavic: Old Irish froich "heather, low scrub on moorland," Welsh grug "heather, the heath plant Calluna vulgaris," Gaulish *wroik- in the divine name Matres Uroicae, all going back to Celtic *u̯roi̯k- "heather"; Russian véresk, véres "heather," Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian vrȉjes, Polish wrzos (< Slavic *vêrsŭ); Lithuanian vìržis "heather," Latvian vir̂zis, vìrsis (for further attested forms see R. Derksen, Etymological Dictionary of the Baltic Inherited Lexicon, Brill, 2015). Given the differences in vocalism and the uncertain nature of the final stop, it is not possible to reconstruct a common etymon, and it has been suggested that the words were borrowed, perhaps independently, from a non-Indo-European source. See also briar entry 2.