Hederas

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Plural term for various climbing or trailing woody plants commonly known as ivies ; decorative elements in the form of or inspired by such plants, especially in manuscript illumination or ornamental design
2. Refers to multiple species of evergreen vines in the ginseng family ; also denotes ornamental motifs resembling these plants used in art and manuscripts
3. The collective name for different kinds of ivy plants that creep or climb ; used as a term for leafy embellishments modeled after these vines in artistic or calligraphic contexts

Etymology: "Hederas" is the plural of "hedera," the Latin word for ivy, which also gave its name to the genus of true ivies. The Latin noun itself is the source of the plant's scientific name, and English took up the plural form to refer to ivy plants in general as well as to the decorative motifs drawn from them. In manuscript illumination and ornamental design, a hedera is a stylized ivy-leaf ornament, often used to fill spaces between lines of text or to mark the ends of sections. The plural is most often met in art-historical and manuscript contexts, where it names a whole family of such ornaments rather than the living plants themselves. Because the same Latin root underlies both the botanical and the decorative sense, a single word covers the climbing vine in a garden and the carved or painted leaf on a medieval page.

Synonyms: ivy, climber, vine