orpine

Or or·pin

[awr-pin]

noun

1. a plant, Sedum telephium, of the stonecrop family, having purplish flowers.

orpine

/ ˈɔːpɪn, ˈɔːpaɪn /

noun

1. Also called: livelong.  live-forever. a succulent perennial N temperate crassulaceous plant, Sedum telephium, with toothed leaves and heads of small purplish-white flowers

Word History and Origins

Origin of orpine¹

1350–1400; Middle English < Middle French, back formation from orpiment orpiment

Word History and Origins

Origin of orpine¹

C14: from Old French, apparently from _orpiment (perhaps referring to the yellow flowers of a related species)

Example Sentences

There, he whipped up the omelet of my dreams, puffy and rich, and served it with his just-plucked harvest, including acidic wood sorrel, spruce shoots and juicy, fleshy-leafed orpine.

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It is supposed that it was originally made for some lover to give to his mistress on Midsummer Eve, as the orpine plant is connected with that time.

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The common name, "orpine," was given on account of the yellow, or orpine, flowers; and the name "stonecrop," from its always growing in stony places.

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They set the orpine in clay upon pieces of slate or potsherd in their houses, calling it a “Midsummer man.”

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We have no native plant so indestructible as garden orpine, or live-forever, which our grandmothers nursed and for which they are cursed by many a farmer.

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