Etymology

moonseed

M3O1O1N1S1E1E1D2

Today it means: A twining plant of the genera Menispermum or Cocculus, in the family Menispermaceae. Full definition →

translingual Menispermum
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. translingual · calque ofMenispermum
  2. English todaymoonseed

Calque of translingual Menispermum, first attested in 1739. By surface analysis, moon + seed, in reference to the crescent shape of their seeds.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.