spleenwort

[spleen-wurt, -wawrt]

noun

any of various temperate and tropical ferns of the genera Asplenium and Diplazium, certain species of which are grown as ornamentals.

Origin of spleenwort

First recorded in 1570–80; spleen + wort²

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for spleenwort

Historical Examples of spleenwort

Still other species of ferns are known to hybridize more or less, as we saw in the case of Scott's spleenwort.
The Fern Lover's Companion
George Henry Tilton
Black and white maidenhair, spleenwort, hartstongue, and golden maidenhair.
Cooley's Practical Receipts, Volume II
Arnold Cooley
Spleenwort is excellent good for melancholy people, helps the stranguary and breaks the Stone in the bladder.
Every Day Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony
George Francis Dow

British Dictionary definitions for spleenwort

spleenwort

noun

any of various ferns of the genus Asplenium, esp A. trichomanes, that often grows on walls, having linear or oblong sori on the undersurface of the frondsSee also asplenium

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