hellebore
/ˈhɛlɪbɔːɹ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 1.87 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Any of the common garden flowering plants of the genus Helleborus, in family Ranunculaceae, having supposed medicinal properties.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
A toxic extract of certain false hellebores (Veratrum album or Veratrum viride), formerly used as a pesticide.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Aretæus recommends moderate venæsection to be repeated, if the patient is plethoric, purging with black hellebore, and in some cases emetics; nourishing diet."
- "Deadly nightshade, henbane, hellebore and mandrakes were of evil reputation[.]"
- "1998, Plinio Prioreschi, A History of Medicine, Volume III: Roman Medicine, page 122, Then the physician would use the king of remedies, the powerful one, hellebore: […] We suspect that after a sufficient number of administrations of hellebore the patient, if he had not done so before, would declare himself cured."
- "It's Virgil who sends me to the hellebores. He mentions them as a component of an ointment to be applied to sheep suffering from skin diseases. The ointment comprises “olive oil lees mixed with silver slag, sulphur, pitch from Mount Ida, wax rich in oil, sea-squill, as well, and strong hellebore and black bitumen.”"
- "1915 July 14, Leland Ossian Howard, Robert Harris Hutchison, House Flies, US Department of Agriculture, Farmers' Bulletin No. 679, page 15, Of the numerous substances tried, the one which seems best to fulfill these conditions is powdered hellebore. Some of the powdered hellebore in use is prepared from the roots of a plant which botanists know as Veratrum viride, and which is popularly known as Indian polk or itch weed."
- "Hellebore is a classic insecticide that has not found much favor in today's pest-control recommendations, though it was certainly effective for its time. In some organic pest-control books information on hellebore can still be found, but by and large its use went out of favor in the 1920s and 1930s."
Etymology
From Middle English ellebore, from Old French ellebre, elebore, from Medieval Latin eleborus, via Latin from Ancient Greek ἑλλέβορος (helléboros), possibly from ἄλκη (álkē, “elk [moose]”) βιβρώσκω (bibrṓskō, “to eat”). The initial h was restored in English to reflect the Ancient Greek etymology.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈhɛlɪbɔːɹ/
- British English: /ˈhɛlɪbɔː/
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
American hellebore
American white hellebore
bastard hellebore
big hellebore
black hellebore
European white hellebore
false hellebore
fetid hellebore (Helleborus foetidus