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mullein

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English

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Mullein Verbascum thapsus
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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English moleyne, from Anglo-Norman moleine, which is either a Celtic borrowing and derived from Proto-Celtic *melinos (“yellow”) from *meli (“honey”) – an adjective found in Breton melen (“yellow”) and Welsh melyn (“yellow”)[1] – or from mol (“soft”), from Latin mollis (“soft”), referencing the plant's fluffy, downy leaves, also apparent in synonyms such as feltwort, flannel leaf, and velvet plant.[2]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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mullein (usually uncountable, plural mulleins)

  1. Any of a few hundred species of European and Asian plants, of the genus Verbascum, especially that majority that have yellow flowers. [from 14th c.]
    Synonyms: Aaron's rod, cow's lungwort, feltwort, flannel leaf, velvet plant
    • 1578, Rembert Dodoens, “Of Mulleyne⸝ or Hyg[h]taper”, in Henry Lyte, transl., A Niewe Herball, or Historie of Plantes: […], London: […] [Henry [i.e., Hendrik van der] Loë for] Gerard Dewes, […], →OCLC, 1st part (Sundry Sortes of Herbes and Plantes), page 118:
      There be foure ſortes of Mulleyne, as [Pedanius] Dioſcorides writeth: wherof yͤ two firſt are white Mulleyne, and of them one is Male, and the other female: The third is blacke Mulleyne: The fourth is wilde Mulleyne. […] The white male Mulleyn (or rather Wolleyn) hath […] the whole top with his pleaſant yellow floures ſheweth like to a waxe Candell or taper cunningly wrought.
    • 1940, Rosetta E. Clarkson, Green Enchantments: The Magic Spell of Gardens, The Macmillan Company, page 267:
      As we all know, witches ride through the air on a broom, but sometimes their means of locomotion was a bulrush, a branch of thorn, mullein stalks, cornstalk, or ragweed, called fairies' horse in Ireland.

Hyponyms

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Translations

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References

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  1. ^ James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “Mullein”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC.
  2. ^ “mullein”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.

Finnish

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Noun

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mullein

  1. instructive plural of mulli

Anagrams

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