kecksies

For among other odd burs and kecksies, the misgrowth of our luxuriant activity, we have now a READING PUBLIC ..., whose heads and hearts are dieted at the two public ordinaries of Literature, the circulating libraries and the periodical press.

Periodical Indigestion 1997

Shakespeare's word, kecksies, is still used by elderly folk near the Essex/Suffolk border to refer to the lovely frothy cow parsley with white flowers.

VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XX No 1 1991