yarrow

See also: Yarrow

English

a yarrow plant Achillea millefolium

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈjæɹəʊ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈjæɹoʊ/
• Rhymes: -ærəʊ

Etymology 1

From Middle English ȝarowe, yarowe, yarwe, from Old English ġearwe, from Proto-Germanic *garwō (“yarrow, yarrow-like herbs”), perhaps ultimately cognate to Proto-Germanic *gelwaz (“yellow”). Cognate with Dutch gerw (“yarrow”) and German (Schaf-)garbe.

Noun

yarrow (usually uncountable, plural yarrows)

1. Any of several pungent Eurasian and North American herbs, of the genus Achillea, used in traditional herbal medicine.
2. Common yarrow, Achillea millefolium, the type species of the genus.
   • 1979, Victor Kaplan, The Woman who Gathered Yarrow; The Box; Miss Vesey's Other Leg, →ISBN, page 11:

     “Oh, yarrow! This is it,” she said, extracting a single long stemmed ferny grass with clusters of small white flowers from the bouquet in her hand.

Synonyms

• (Achillea spp.): milfoil, achillea
• (Achillea millefolium): devil's nettle, sanguinary, soldier's woundwort, thousand-leaf
• See also Thesaurus:yarrow

Hyponyms

• Alps yarrow, Achillea distans
• Chinese yarrow, Achillea alpina
• Egyptian yarrow, Achillea aegyptiaca
• fernleaf yarrow, Achillea filipendulina
• Ligurian yarrow, Achillea ligustica
• noble yarrow, Achillea nobilis
• Siberian yarrow, Achillea sibirica

Translations

any of several pungent Eurasian and North American herbs, of the genus Achillea

• Albanian: bari mijëfletësh
• Armenian: հազարատերևուկ (hazaraterewuk)
• Catalan: milfulles f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 蓍 (zh) (shī)

• Czech: řebříček (cs)
• Danish: røllike c
• Dutch: gerw (nl) m or f, duizendblad (nl) n
• Estonian: raudrohi
• Finnish: kärsämöt (fi)
• French: achillée (fr) f, mille-feuille (fr) f
• Galician: milfollas (gl) m
• Georgian: ფარსმანდუკი (parsmanduḳi)
• German: Schafgarbe (de) f
• Greek: αγριαψιθιά (el) (agriapsithiá)
• Hungarian: cickafark (hu)
• Irish: athair thalún f, luibh na ndaitheacha f
• Italian: millefoglio (it) m
• Latvian: pelašķis
• Lithuanian: kraujažolė
• Macedonian: ајдучка трева f (ajdučka treva)

• Navajo: hazéí yiltseeʼí
• Norman: hèrbe au tchèrpentchi f (Jersey), tchèrpentchiéthe f (Jersey)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: ryllik m

  Nynorsk: ryllik m

• Occitan: milafuèlhas m
• Old English: ġearwe f
• Old Saxon: garwa
• Polish: krwawnik (pl) m
• Portuguese: milefólio (pt) m
• Romanian: coada șoricelui
• Russian: тысячели́стник (ru) m (tysjačelístnik)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: сто̀лиснӣк m

  Latin: stòlisnīk (sh) m

• Slovene: rman
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: rotwica f, źiwa garba f, kšawnik m

• Spanish: milenrama f, plumajillo m
• Swedish: röllika (sv) c, rölleka c
• Welsh: milddail

Further reading

• Achillea on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• yarrow on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• yarrow at USDA Plants database

Etymology 2

a green woodpecker, Picus viridis

Origin unknown. Perhaps imitative of the bird's cry; compare yaffle, hewhole.

Noun

yarrow (plural yarrows)

1. (Britain) The green woodpecker, Picus viridis.

Further reading

• European green woodpecker on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Picus viridis on Wikispecies.Wikispecies

Anagrams

• arrowy