Hogwort

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A coarse, weedy herbaceous plant of the kind that grows wild in fields, pastures and waste ground
2. An unrefined wild plant with rough leaves and stems, often considered a nuisance by farmers and gardeners
3. A rank, sprawling wild herb that colonizes neglected land and is commonly called by a folk name in rural areas

Etymology: Hogwort is a plant name built from two plain English parts: "hog," the common word for a pig, and "wort," an old English word for a plant or herb, which survives in names like St. John's wort and liverwort. Put together, the name describes a plant that pigs were associated with, though the exact reason for the pairing is not something the record makes clear. The word is a compound, so there is no foreign-language detour to trace. "Wort" comes from Old English "wyrt," meaning a root, herb, or plant, and it has long been used in English for a wide range of herbaceous plants, often with a descriptive first element.

Synonyms: hogweed