Fluellin

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A small weedy plant of the genus Kickxia, related to toadflax, with tiny spurred flowers
2. Any of several low-growing wild plants in the figwort family that bear small yellow or purple blossoms
3. A kind of toadflax-like herb found in fields and waste ground, with small snapdragon-shaped flowers

Etymology: "Fluellin" is a name for a plant, and it is one of those words that began as a personal name. In Welsh, "llysiau Llewellyn" means "Llewellyn's herbs," so the plant was named after a man called Llewellyn, and the English word is a shortened form of that Welsh phrase. The Welsh name carries the memory of a person, which is what makes the word unusual: an ordinary plant ended up labelled with the name of someone who was probably a healer or a keeper of its uses. The English form kept the sense of a personal name while dropping the rest of the phrase, so the plant itself became the bearer of that name.