tormentil
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "1615, Helkiah Crooke, Mikrokosmographia, London: William Jaggard, “A Dilucidation or Exposition of the Controuersies concerning the Historie of the Infant,” Question 31, p. 340, […] the hearbe Tormentill which hath seauen leaues resisteth all poysons."
- "Instead of tea, they drink an infusion of the roots of the tormentil (Tormentilla erecta), which, when boiled, dyes the water reddish, gives it a very astringent taste, and is drank without milk."
- "The bracken, waist-high at first, was like small hoops at the top of the wood, where the tiny golden tormentil made a carpet and the yellow pimpernel was closing her eager eyes."
- "The flowers were sparser. Here and there a yellow tormentil showed in the grass, a late harebell or a few shreds of purple bloom on a brown, crisping tuft of self-heal."
Etymology
From mediaeval Latin tormentilla (“minor pain”), perhaps referring to the conditions that the plant was used to treat.
Origin
- Source language: Latin