pimpernel

English

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Anglo-Norman pimpernele et al., (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle French pimpinelle (“burnet saxifrage”) et al., from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Late Latin pipinella, most likely from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Vulgar Latin *piperinus (“pepper-like”), because its fruit resembled peppercorns, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin piper. It has also been linked to Latin bipinnella, from bipennis (“two-winged”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɪmpənɛl/

Noun

pimpernel (plural pimpernels)

1. (now rare) A plant of the genus Pimpinella, especially burnet saxifrage, . [from 16th c.]
2. Any of various plants of the genus Anagallis, having small red, white or purple flowers, especially the scarlet pimpernel, Anagallis arvensis. [from 15th c.]
   • 1653, Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physician Enlarged, Folio Society 2007, p. 221:

     Common Pimpernel has diverse weak square stalks lying on the ground, beset all along with two small and almost round leaves at every joint [...].

3. Sanguisorba spp. [from 16th c.]
   1. Great burnet () [from 16th c.]
   2. Salad burnet (Sanguisorba minor). [from 16th c.]
4. (Canada, US) The yellow pimpernel ()
5. (figurative) Someone resembling the fictional Scarlet Pimpernel; a gallant dashing resourceful man given to remarkable feats of bravery and derring-do in liberating victims of tyranny and injustice. [from 20th c.]
   • (Can we date this quote?), Hal Lehrman

     Lined up solidly with the Pimpernels and with the persecuted.

Translations

Pimpinella saxifraga

• Finnish: ahopukinjuuri (fi), pukinjuuri (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

Anagallis

• Armenian: մկնականջ (hy) (mknakanǰ)
• Catalan: anagall m
• Dutch: guichelheil (nl)
• Finnish: punka (fi)
• French: mouron (fr) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: Gauchheil (de) m
• Greek:

  Ancient: ἀναγαλλίς f (anagallís)

• Polish: kurzyślad m
• Portuguese: morrião (pt) m
• Spanish: murajes m