Gromwells

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Hardy flowering herbs of the borage family whose seeds are hard and pale, resembling small stones
2. Wild or cultivated plants in the genus Lithospermum, known for their hard, white, nutlike seeds
3. Low-growing plants of the borage family, native to temperate regions, bearing small, hard seeds

Etymology: Gromwells is simply the plural of gromwell, a name for plants in the genus Lithospermum, whose hard, pale, stony seeds gave them their common name. The plural needs little more than that, but the singular has a traceable path behind it. Its variant forms, gromel, grommel, graymill and gray millet, show the name being reshaped by English speakers over time, and the more likely source is the French "grémil," which names the same plant. The variants also point to a shift from the French word's sound toward forms that English speakers could pronounce and remember more easily. Welsh "cromandi" is sometimes compared with the English name, but the connection is less certain, and the French form is the one that best explains the English words.