wormwood
/ˈwɜːm.wʊd/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.60 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An intensely bitter herb (Artemisia absinthium and similar plants in genus Artemisia) used in medicine, in the production of absinthe and vermouth, and as a tonic.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
Something that causes bitterness or affliction; a cause of mortification or vexation.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "But as I said, / When it did taste the wormwood on the nipple / Of my dug and felt it bitter, pretty fool, / To see it tetchy and fall out with the dug!"
- "Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink."
- "Blue skippers in sunny hours ope and shut Where wormwood and grunsel flowers by the cart ruts […]"
- "Cliff took two glasses and filled one with wine And one with wormwood."
- "Amongst the herbs to be administered when the charm was sung over him were a yew-berry, lupin, helenium, marsh mallow, dock, elder, wormwood and strawberry leaves."
- "Tradition credits John the Baptist with wearing a girdle fashioned of wormwood, while he was in the wilderness."
Etymology
From Middle English wormwode, a folk etymology (as if worm + wood) of wermode (“wormwood”), from Old English wermōd (“wormwood, absinthe”), from Proto-West Germanic *warjamōdā (“wormwood”). Cognate with Middle Low German wermode, wermede (“wormwood”), German Wermut (“wormwood”). Doublet of vermouth.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: wormwode, wermōd, *warjamōdā
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈwɜːm.wʊd/
- British English: /ˈwɜːm.wʊd/