Herbariums

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A collection of preserved plant specimens systematically arranged for research or educational purposes
2. A dedicated space or facility housing dried plants kept for scientific study and taxonomy
3. An organized repository containing plant samples, often used by botanists for reference and classification

Etymology: The plural "herbariums" is the form of "herbarium", a collection of dried plants. The main word comes from Latin "herbārium", a derivative of "herba", meaning grass or herb, so the core idea was simply a store of green growing things before it came to mean pressed and preserved specimens. Its partner word is "arbor", which came into English from the same Latin roots and has the sense of a tree, a shape that once grew from the same source family. The two are doublets, meaning two English words that descend from one original word by different routes.

Synonyms: plant collections, botanical collections, INVALID