moonwort

American  

[moon-wurt, -wawrt] / ˈmunˌwɜrt, -ˌwɔrt /

noun

1. any fern of the genus Botrychium, especially B. lunaria, a rare fern having fronds with crescent-shaped leaflets.

2. honesty.

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moonwort British  

/ ˈmuːnˌwɜːt /

noun

1. Also called (US): grape fern. any of various ferns of the genus Botrychium, esp B. lunaria, which has crescent-shaped leaflets

2. another name for honesty

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Etymology

Origin of moonwort

First recorded in 1570–80; moon + wort ²

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

moonwort

Thin, green marsh fern circled lakes alongside moonwort, rattlesnake fern and horsetail.

From New York Times ● Oct. 21, 2016

I have the wild rosehip, and the flat shield of the moonwort, and a pea-pod, and more whose names I know not.

From The Dove in the Eagle's Nest by Charlotte Mary Yonge

Lū′nacy, a kind of madness formerly supposed to be affected by the moon: insanity; Lunā′rian, Lū′narist, a student of lunar phenomena; Lū′nary, the moonwort fern.—adjs.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various

We have one to correspond with the adder's tongue and moonwort, with the Adiantum nigrum and Capillus Veneris, with the Blechnum boreale, with the Ceterach and Ruta muraria, and with the Cystopterids.

From A First Year in Canterbury Settlement by Samuel Butler

But it was only a big bunch of moonwort on a stained-glass-window sill, and the wind was blowing through a vacancy that should have been a date, and making Æolian music.

From Somehow Good by William Frend De Morgan

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