Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An aromatic woolly plant (Origanum dictamnus) native to Crete, formerly believed to have magical powers.
- n. See stone mint.
- n. See gas plant.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A common name in England for the plant Dictamnus albus.
- n. In the United States, Cunila Mariana, a fragrant labiate of the Atlantic States.
- n. A labiate, Origanum Dictamnus, the so-called dittany of Crete.
Wiktionary
- n. botany A labiate plant, Origanum dictamnus, formerly renowned for its medicinal properties; dittany of Crete.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A plant of the Mint family (Origanum Dictamnus), a native of Crete.
- n. The Dictamnus Fraxinella. See dictamnus.
- n. In America, the Cunila Mariana, a fragrant herb of the Mint family.
WordNet 3.0
- n. Eurasian perennial herb with white flowers that emit flammable vapor in hot weather
Etymologies
- From Old French ditan (French dictame), from Latin dictamnum, from Ancient Greek δίκταμνον (diktamnon), reportedly from Δικτή (Diktē, "Dicte"), a mountain in Crete on whose slopes the plant grew. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English ditaine, from Old French ditan, from Latin dictamnus, from Greek diktamnon, perhaps after Mount Diktē (Dhíkti), a peak in eastern Crete. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Since stags and hinds, when deeply wounded with darts, arrows, and bolts, if they do but meet the herb called dittany, which is common in Candia, and eat a little of it, presently the shafts come out and all is well again; even as kind”
Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel
“Since stags and hinds, when deeply wounded with darts, arrows, and bolts, if they do but meet the herb called dittany, which is common in Candia, and eat a little of it, presently the shafts come out and all is well again; even as kind Venus cured her beloved byblow Aeneas when he was wounded on the right thigh with an arrow by”
“Wild goats in Crete are said, when wounded by arrows, to go in search of dittany, which is supposed to have the property of ejecting arrows in the body.”
“But dittany, which is to be had in the woods all the while those insects remain in vigor, is a sure defence against them.”
“I had collected a pocketful of eyebright and dittany by the time they finished talking and Hugh Munro rose to go.”
“The snake hit you too, but I've cleaned the wound and put some dittany on it ...”
“They were wincing as they dabbed essence of dittany onto their many injuries.”
“Within minutes he was absorbed in the problem of whether the "dittanders" of Aelfric was, or was not, the same as his own "dittany".”
“On the mountainsides, patches will flash up now and then, bright as dittany in July at the Zippo's ceremonial touch.”
“They have their own medical lore: the goats of Candia cure their wounds by eating dittany, the tortoise purges itself by taking origanum.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘dittany’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Aromata Aromatica
Fragrant things and terms that describe them. Generic names of botanical binomials aren't capitalized if the unconventional lower case form has a useful Wordnik definition. I'm primarily seeking te...
curry leaf, tuberose, orris, moss rose, smudge stick, lavender, frangipani, sweet acacia, sweet bay, tea rose, patchouli, linaloa and 162 more...
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root tips and other ends
stolon, circinate, calyptrogen, meristem, verticil, fusiform, telomere, skirret, relbun, turpeth, galangal, vetiver and 54 more...
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Looking Words Up is Time-Consuming, D...
Stuff found while looking up other stuff, and there's no place to put this stuff.
storax, spignel, cassia lignea, gum serapin, spikenard, paraterminal, paraterminal, cingulate gyrus, hypocaust, laconicum, tepidarium, frigidarium and 119 more...
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harry potter words
quidditch, apparate, disapparate, lumos, snitch, pensieve, dementor, azkaban, wingardium, leviosa, horcrux, bludger and 376 more...
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Flora
fenugreek, verbena, saxifrage, arbutus, calendula, nasturtium, lobelia, hellebore, rhododendron, philodendron, bellflower, heuchera and 449 more...
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Outlander series words
A place for me to keep words I found (or found anew) while reading Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. (Culling my enormous "Learned (or Encountered) in Reading" list.)
gralloch, yeuk, corpse-candle, saprophytic, baldachin, Kermanshah, celandine, tynchal, quaich, mesentery, basidium, dittany and 244 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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Some Words I Love to Use
arcology, strumpet, crux, confected, pedant, bluestocking, cogitation, incensed, lovecraftian, cygnet, dactyl, adytum and 539 more...
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...:::bella:::...
originally started as an attempt to collect words I found visually and auditorially beautiful, as well as psychically evocative, this has become nothing more than a grab bag of word curiosities, a ...
bergamot, jambalaya, bee's knees, heliotrope, hosanna, gamboge, aureole, filial, madrigal, multilingual, sacrosanct, sojourn and 1072 more...
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looked up
Words I've come across while reading and looked up in the dictionary.
deesis, pendentive, revetment, aedicule, stemma, patera, ephod, entrepot, corbel, exedra, volute, archivolt and 1408 more...
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persnickety parlance
behoove, ebullient, insouciant, insipient, froth, quandary, quixotic, tendril, maktub, furrow, furl, anastrophe and 1076 more...
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_mark's list
Words I like!
( personal list, favorite words, randomness )psy, nanobot, success, smack, vibration, microcosmic, springgraph, marksmanship, estranged, homoerotic, flex, fiasco and 1696 more...
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Food for Thought
A breaded foray of words
lady, appanage, companion, penuche, pastille, pantry, panicle, panocha, pannier, panatela, panada, panada and 87 more...
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Keeping Tabs
My favourite words, or some of them.
ambidexterous, ethereal, nemesis, anenome, exacerbate, effervescence, iridescence, meander, almanac, turncoat, chasm, recombinant and 11 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for dittany.
dailyword Hermione used this on Ron's arm after he got splinched. Jun 26, 2012
pjbaldes past tense response to questioning of non question: "oh no he didn't"
example: dittany he just steal my slim jim? Jun 19, 2010
chained_bear Usage on confectio Damocritis. Also on eyebright. Oct 15, 2008
bilby Right. Apr 15, 2008
reesetee Also called fraxinella or "gas plant." I think I'll pass.
Oh...sorry. That was horribly accidental. Apr 15, 2008
bilby Lol, love the definition. So much for sneaking out for a fag in the garden. Apr 15, 2008