Log in or Sign up
  1. lovage love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A Mediterranean perennial plant (Levisticum officinale) having edible leaves and leafstalks and small, aromatic, seedlike fruit used as seasoning.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. The umbelliferous plant Levisticum officinale, a native of the mountains of central Europe, cultivated in old gardens. This is the lovage of the older books. It is sometimes distinguished as Italian or garden lovage.
  2. n. Another plant of the same family, Ligusticum Scoticum, often called Scotch lovage. The name extends also to other species of the genus.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A perennial Mediterranean herb, Levisticum officinale, with odor and flavor resembling celery.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Bot.) An umbelliferous plant (Levisticum officinale), sometimes used in medicine as an aromatic stimulant.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. herb native to southern Europe; cultivated for its edible stalks and foliage and seeds
  2. n. stalks eaten like celery or candied like angelica; seeds used for flavoring or pickled like capers

Etymologies

  1. From Anglo-Norman luvache, loveche et al., and Middle French levesche, from Late Latin levisticum, probably alteration of Latin ligusticum, from Ligusticus ("Ligurian"), ultimately from Ancient Greek Λίγυς. (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English, from Anglo-Norman luvesche, from Old English lufestice, from Medieval Latin levistica, from Late Latin levisticum, alteration of Latin ligusticum, from neuter of Ligusticus, Ligurian, from Ligurēs, the Ligurians. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “Other herbs and plants there are which retain the names of the countries from whence they were transported, as the Median apples from Media, where they first grew; Punic apples from Punicia, that is to say, Carthage; Ligusticum, which we call lovage, from”

    Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel

  • “Ligusticum, which we call lovage, from Liguria, the coast of Genoa; Rhubarb from a flood in Barbary, as Ammianus attesteth, called Ru; Santonica from a region of that name; Fenugreek from Greece; Gastanes from a country so called; Persicaria from Persia; Sabine from a territory of that appellation; Staechas from the Staechad Islands; Spica Celtica from the land of the Celtic Gauls, and so throughout a great many other, which were tedious to enumerate.”

    Gargantua and Pantagruel, Illustrated, Book 3

  • ““She drank this awful stuff—lovage, which is some sort of herbal diuretic, because she had trouble with … you know… water retention.””

    Simon & Schuster: Dreaming of the Bones

  • “The delegates dined on baked Scottish salmon, Welsh lamb, and something called lovage (see the full menu here), all prepared by Naked Chef Jamie Oliver.”

    AlterNet.org Main RSS Feed

  • “And it even applies to the other ingredient in the anti-alcoholism six-pack cocktail; buy "lovage root" and you'll very probably get the usual kind of lovage,”

    How To Spot A Psychopath

  • “To make up for it I show off my knife skills by finely chopping half a shallot to go into a mortar along with big fat blackberries, leaves of lovage and fresh angelica seeds.”

    The Guardian: Cookery masterclass: René Redzepi

  • “There's pine gin, lemon verbena, lovage gin, "Grandpa Leo's" bergamot vodka and chipotle vodka.”

    The Guardian: Observer Food Monthly Awards 2011 Best Place to Drink: Mark's Bar

  • “Add 6 ounces roughly-chopped cooked lobster, 1 teaspoon lovage, cut into thin ribbons, and ¼ cup pea tendrils leaves only; if you can't find pea tendrils, thinly sliced young spinach is a fine substitute.”

    The Wall Street Journal: The Shape of Summer Pasta

  • “I grow herbs that you cannot count on finding at the supermarket: tarragon, lovage, anise hyssop, lemon balm, lemon verbena.”

    The Wall Street Journal: Herb Whisperer Amy Pennington

  • “Bonus: Poppy has just opened a tiny backyard patio, with a few small tables outdoors by the pretty and practical kitchen garden of flowering sage and borage and young stems of lovage.”

    Best New Restaurants and backyard garden

Show 10 more examples...

Log in or sign up to add your own related words.

hypernyms (2)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. herbaceous plant
  1. Herb

reverse dictionary (6)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. sea-parsley
  1. levisticum
  1. lovage
  1. sea-lovage
  1. Angelico
  1. silaus

tags (2)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. herb
  1. plant

Log in or sign up to add your own tag.

Wordmap

(beta)

Word visualization

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘lovage’.

More lists containing ‘lovage’

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • she Also the name of a group whose sole offering was the very entertaining Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By. Aug 6, 2008

Tweets

Looking for tweets for lovage.

‘lovage’ has been looked up 1650 times, loved by 3 people, added to 17 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 10.