Hazelwort

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A low wild plant of Europe bearing kidney-shaped leaves and small greenish flowers, traditionally used in herbal remedies
2. A creeping woodland herb native to Europe, recognized by its rounded leaves and inconspicuous greenish blooms
3. The small European wild plant with rounded, kidney-shaped leaves and tiny greenish flowers that grows in shaded places

Etymology: Hazelwort is a compound of "hazel" and "wort", and the two halves tell the story. "Hazel" comes from Old English "hæsel", the name of the shrub that bears hazelnuts, while "wort" is the old English word for a plant or herb, the same element that survives in "mugwort", "liverwort" and "St John's wort". Put together, the name simply means a herb associated with hazel, an unusually plain piece of naming for a plant that gets its label from a tree. The plant itself is Asarum europaeum, a low, evergreen ground cover with glossy kidney-shaped leaves and small dark brown flowers hidden near the soil. Its name points to a resemblance rather than a shared habitat: the leaves look rather like those of the hazel tree, which is why the herb was tied to it in the naming. The herb is sometimes called asarabacca in older English, a name that comes from a different source entirely.

Synonyms: asarabacca, wild ginger