Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of numerous plants of the genus Gentiana, characteristically having showy, variously colored flowers.
- n. The dried rhizome and roots of a yellow-flowered European gentian, G. lutea, sometimes used as a tonic.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The common name for species of the genus Gentiana. The officinal gentian, affording the gentian-root of pharmacists, is the G. lutea, a tall handsome species of southern and central Europe, though the roots of other species, as of G. purpurea and G. Pannonica, are frequently substituted for it. The more common American gentians are the fringed gentian (G. crinata), with showy sky-blue, delicately fringed corollas, and the closed gentian (G. Andrewsii) and soapwort-gentian (G. Saponaria), both with nearly closed corollas.
- n. The pineweed or orange-grass, Sarothra gentianoides.
- n. The soapwort-gentian.
- n. Same as. striped gentian.
- n. The American columbo, Frasera Carolinensis.
Wiktionary
- n. Any of various herbs of the family Gentianaceae found in temperate and mountainous regions with violet or blue flowers.
- n. The dried roots and rhizome of a European gentian, Gentiana lutea, used as a tonic.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Bot.) Any one of a genus (Gentiana) of herbaceous plants with opposite leaves and a tubular four- or five-lobed corolla, usually blue, but sometimes white, yellow, or red. See
Illust. of capsule.
WordNet 3.0
- n. any of various plants of the family Gentianaceae especially the genera Gentiana and Gentianella and Gentianopsis
Etymologies
- Middle English gencian, from Old French genciane, from Latin gentiāna, perhaps after Gentius, second-century B.C. king of Illyria. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The Marmolata having retired from the scene, we now turn back, taking a short cut across the dreary "Col" and finding by the way some exquisite specimens of wild Daphne (Daphne Cneorum), abundance of the small mountain gentian (Gentiana verna), and large clusters of a very lovely, tiny pink flower with wax-like petals, minute and close as a lichen, and unlike anything that either of us has ever seen before.”
“I use it, or another herb called gentian in animals as a tincture to stimulate appetite.”
The Huffington Post: Dr. Richard Palmquist: Science Rediscovers the Forgotten Herb Andrographis
“One of only two brands of bitters to survive prohibition, it's derived from a flowering plant known as a gentian, and is thinner than many other bitters, with less cloying flavors.”
“If the patient is run down in condition, bitter tonics, such as gentian, may be given in 2-dram doses twice a day and a liberal diet of grain allowed.”
“Some mild and general tonic will likewise be useful, such as gentian and ginger.”
“I find it hard to countenance how such an exotic thing can do so well so far from its home in South America, but here it is, lighting up my garden still, its gentian-blue flowers defiant and powering on strongly.”
“Count the birds, notice the small blossoms just budding along the streambanks: gentian, violet crocus, bellflower.”
“This tiny gentian, so faithful to the earth in its teardrop of honey-colored amber, bloomed and became immortal thirty-five million years before anyone thought of God.”
The Huffington Post: Six Poems By Dan Gerber: Narrative Magazine's Friday Feature
“Instead, she smiled broadly as she painted the wound with gentian violet and sent the patient on his way.”
“Mama says she named me this because the gentian blossom is the exact same color blue as my eyes.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘gentian’.
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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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Davenport
words looked up recently from reading Guy Davenport
flenite, sampan, provender, comitatus, cycladic, surd, scialytic, lignite, plangencies, fugal, zamindary, macaque and 112 more...
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A Sequel to 250 Spelling Words
Words to quiz the intermediate and advanced speller alike
sinopia, replevin, lathee, hoisin, kerygma, czardas, amoxicillin, talipes, simoleon, hypermnesia, anodyne, mystique and 238 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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Old Pharmacy, etc.
This is not an Aubrey/Maturin list.
This is not an Aubrey/Maturin list.
This is not an Aubrey/Maturin list.
There. I think I've convinced myself.
(Of course...asafetida, Cinchona, Peruvian bark, Jesuit's bark, mithridate, aqua, bark, lard, electuary, gentian, diatessaron, myrrh and 110 more...
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Quacksalvers et al. Nostrum
Bring forth the cathartic illumination on malignant,maniacal,medical,menage a trios and more egotists stymie
culpability, piousfraud, capacitous, rhabdomyolysis, scapula, idiosyncrasy, quiescent, malignant, nefarious, sociological, sociopath, pathogen and 202 more...
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Lively Words
quick, quicksilver, cwic, quitch grass, cwice, vivify, viviparous, viper, weever, wyvern, viand, victual and 148 more...
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Pale Fire
Words gathered while reading Pale Fire.
larches, torquate, stillicide, vermiculate, preterist, theolatry, iridule, vulgarian, cloutish, lemniscate, torsion, trillium and 176 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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the gardener and apothecary's
bryony, chamomile, frond, sweet bay, laurel, monkshood, henbane, hemlock, parsley, rosemary, thyme, lady's mantle and 140 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (G)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
gable, gaia, gala, galaxy, gallows, gambol, garden, garland, garnet, gauntlet, gazebo, gazelle and 105 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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Henderson the Rain King
Words taken from Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow.
yellowback, unkillable, swack, hoarfrost, decapotable, brownian, mackinaw, taxwise, oratorio, picaresque, masonite, catalpa and 109 more...
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learning
A list of words whose meanings I am learning, either because a) I don't know the meaning b) I know the meaning, but could stand to better appreciate certain inflections or secondary meanings or c) ...
louche, educe, loam, cob, sclerotic, palliate, axial, syndicalist, ecumenical, sally, fatuous, parvenu and 1381 more...
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favorite words
sawbones, grackle, celadon, brio, loam, trull, mint, saliva, serape, frisson, impasto, reek and 547 more...
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Words of the Day
glabella, chirotony, nook-shotten, crapehanger, filemot, swirlie, egosurf, lexiphanicism, Ruritanian, stichometry, chrononaut, faldstool and 2014 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for gentian.
ruzuzu See diatessaron. Jan 24, 2011
jaime_d from "The Richard Nixon Freischutz Rag" by Guy Davenport Jan 18, 2010
chained_bear "... later tests showed the stuff to be a compound of bone meal, charcoal, salt, pepper, chalk, baking soda, a flowering plant called gentian that was used as a flavoring in Moxie soda pop, and trace amounts of strychnine, or rat poison, which was then thought by some (crackpots) to have a cocainelike effect."
—Charles Leerhsen, Crazy Good: The True Story of Dan Patch (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008), 244–245 Oct 27, 2008