Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A Eurasian perennial herb (Polygonum bistorta) having cylindrical spikes of usually pink flowers and a rhizome used as an astringent in folk medicine.
- n. Any of certain related plants of the genus Polygonum.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A plant, Polygonum Bistorta, so called because of its twisted roots: popularly called snakeweed and adder's-wort. Alpine bistort is a dwarf allied species, alpine and arctic, P. viviparum.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. An herbaceous plant of the genus Polygonum, section Bistorta; snakeweed; adderwort. Its root is used in medicine as an astringent.
Etymologies
- French bistorte, from Old French, from Medieval Latin *bistorta : Latin bis, twice; see bis + torta, past participle of torquēre, to twist; see torque1.
Examples
“As many as 30 different species grow, among them Alpine bartsia Bartsia alpina, Alpine bistort Polygonum viviparum, Unalaska fleabane Erigeron humilis and thick-leaved whitlow grass Draba crassifolia.”
“Many of the other plants represented here, such as wild orchid, bistort, and thistle, echo this theme of marriage and procreation: they were acclaimed in the Middle Ages as fertility aids for both men and women.”
“I thought of that, but we'll never find any bistort this time of year, and the herb sellers wouldn't begin to have enough.”
Temple of the Winds
“That would do it, but it would be easier yet if you gave them powdered bistort.”
Temple of the Winds
“Then he submerged his head and came up with a mouthful of dripping duckweed and water bistort.”
The Plains of Passage
“Monkshood, horehound, henbane, vervain (good against the spells of witches), feverfew, dog's mercury, bistort, woad, and so on, all seem like relics of the days of black-letter books.”
“Simon Rogan offers visitors to his Michelin-starred Cumbrian outpost L'Enclume a traditional pond pudding, complete with nettles, dock, bistort, dandelion and a dried nettle crust.”
“JL URPIN, Archbishop of Rhehns, the friend and Secretary of Charles the Great, excellently skilled * ip sacred and profane literature, of a genius equally adapted to prose and verse; the advocate of the poor, beloved of God in his life and conversation, who often hand to hand fought the Saracens by the Emperor's side: he relates the acts of Charles the Great in one book of Epistles, and flourished, under Charles and his Son Lewis, to the year of our Lord eight hundred and thirty. tubpin's bistort or JOHN TURPIN'S HISTORY OP Charles the Great and Orlando.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘bistort’.
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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