Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An abundant species of geranium, Geranium Robertianum, of both Europe and America: said to be so called because it was used to cure a disease known as Robert's plague, from Robert, Duke of Normandy. Its reddish stems have given it the names redshanks and dragon's-blood, while a certain unpleasant odor has earned for it the name of stinking crane's-bill. In West Cumberland, England, there is a superstition that if it is plucked misfortune will follow, and it is there called
death-come-quickly .
Examples
“Fumiter, mercury, gilt-cups, four-leaved grass and the delicate blossoms of herb-robert came out to meet the sun with a half-scared look, and wished they had stayed underground.”
“At the moment the most common top ten plants are: common nettle, cleavers, cow parsley, ribwort plantain, greater plantain, hawthorn, lesser celandine, bluebell, red clover and herb-robert.”
Telegraph.co.uk: news, business, sport, the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Sunday Telegraph
“Dyer records also the following: "In West Cumberland, the herb-robert”
Lists
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A few of my favorite definitions from...
I'm especially fond of ones written by Charles Sanders Peirce.
theodolite, illusion, buckie, frank, abstract-concrete, semidiagrammatic, object-object, vortex-filament, dod, parrock, cobler, weather-box and 354 more...
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ruzuzu "An abundant species of geranium, Geranium Robertianum, of both Europe and America: said to be so called because it was used to cure a disease known as Robert's plague, from Robert, Duke of Normandy. Its reddish stems have given it the names redshanks and dragon's-blood, while a certain unpleasant odor has earned for it the name of stinking crane's-bill. In West Cumberland, England, there is a superstition that if it is plucked misfortune will follow, and it is there called death-come-quickly."
--Century Dictionary
Sep 15, 2010