noun
wort
A plant or herb, especially as named in a compound word.
The old herbal used wort as a general name for a plant.
Etymology
The Old English noun directly means a plant or herb. It survives most readily inside plant-names such as mugwort and woundwort.
More examples
- In lungwort, wort means a plant or herb.
- The glossary traced the wort in several traditional herb names.
- The ending wort survives in the names of many plants.
Forms
wort
Similar words
- herb
- Herb remains an ordinary word; wort survives mainly in plant names and historical language.
- plant
- Plant is the ordinary broad term; wort is mainly preserved within traditional compound names.