Etymology

smearwort

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Today it means: Aristolochia rotunda, a herbaceous perennial plant native to Southern Europe. Full definition →

Middle English smērewort ← Old English smeoruwyrt
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The story

  1. Old English · inherited fromsmeoruwyrt
  2. Middle English · inherited fromsmērewort
  3. English todaysmearwort

From Middle English smērewort, from Old English smeoruwyrt from smeoru (“ointment”) + wyrt (“herb”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.