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Asparagus
I was told that the word came from 'asperges', the phallic-looking thing a priest uses to sprinkle holy water. This name, in turn, from a line in one of the Psalms, "Asperges me, Domine, hyssopo, et mundabor", "Wash me, O Lord, with hyssop and I shall be clean." Of course, one wonders if this is merely a supposition, or a joke, or if the boot is on the wrong leg and it is the sprinkler that takes its name from the vegetable.
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