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lungwort

[luhng-wurt, -wawrt]
noun
  1. a European plant, Pulmonaria officinalis, of the borage family, having blue flowers.
  2. any of various related plants of the genus Mertensia, as the North American M. virginica, having nodding clusters of blue flowers.
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Origin of lungwort

before 1000; Middle English long-wort, lung-wort hellebore, Old English lungen-wyrt; see lung, wort2
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for lungwort

Historical Examples of lungwort

  • Lungwort, however, was so called because the lichen Pulmonaria has a resemblance to lungs.

    The Romance of Plant Life

    G. F. Scott Elliot

  • The changing blue and pink flowers of the Lungwort, somewhat characteristic of its family, are curious also.

    Old-Time Gardens

    Alice Morse Earle

  • Nor was it the colour of her eyes, the deep pure blue of the lungwort, that blue loveliness seen in no other flower on earth.

  • Lungwort helps infirmities of the lungs, coughs and shortness of breath.

British Dictionary definitions for lungwort

lungwort

noun
  1. any of several Eurasian plants of the boraginaceous genus Pulmonaria, esp P. officinalis, which has spotted leaves and clusters of blue or purple flowers: formerly used to treat lung diseases
  2. any of various boraginaceous plants of the N temperate genus Mertensia, such as Mertensia maritima (sea lungwort), having drooping clusters of tubular usually blue flowers
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012