Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of various plants of the genus Anagallis, especially the scarlet pimpernel (A. arvensis) having opposite, entire leaves and small red, purple, or white flowers.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The garden-burnet, Poterium Sanguisorba.
- n. The burnet-saxifrage, Pimpinella Saxifraga.
- n. The selfheal, Brunella vulgaris.
- n. A plant, Anagallis arvensis, of the primrose family, sometimes distinguished as red or scarlet pimpernel, a native of the northern Old World and introduced into the United States and elsewhere. It is a neat procumbent herb with a wheel-shaped corolla, red in color, varying to purple, white, or blue. The flowers close at the approach of bad weather, whence it is named poor man's (or shepherd's) weather-glass; it is also called red chickweed, John-go-to-bed-at-noon, etc. The name is extended also to the other species of the genus, as A. ten ella, the bog-pimpernel, and A. cœrulea (A. Monelli), the Italian or blue pimpernel, a garden species from southern Europe, with large flowers, deep-blue shaded with pink. See cut under
circumscissile .
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Bot.) A plant of the genus Anagallis, of which one species (Anagallis arvensis) has small flowers, usually scarlet, but sometimes purple, blue, or white, which speedily close at the approach of bad weather.
WordNet 3.0
- n. European garden herb with purple-tinged flowers and leaves that are sometimes used for salads
- n. any of several plants of the genus Anagallis
Etymologies
- From Anglo-Norman pimpernele et al., Middle French pimpinelle ("burnet saxifrage") et al., from Late Latin pipinella, of disputed origin. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English pimpernelle, from Old French, alteration of piprenelle, from Late Latin pimpinella, perhaps from Latin piper, pepper; see pepper. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“For instance, the pimpernel, which is a very common flower, shnts itself up extremely close against rainy weather.”
“There, visitors can learn about the organic farming process firsthand, as well as enjoy olfactory heaven with a tour of the Czech gardens, where they can find wild herbs and flowers such as pimpernel, marsh pea, cuckoo flower, moon daisy, wild thyme, silvery cinquefoil and primrose, among many others.”
“The little scarlet pimpernel also makes the same weather forecast, which earned it the nickname "poor man's weather glass".”
“We carried on down to Elloughton, with the tiny scarlet pimpernel sparkling as the sun came through.”
“Poor Mr. McCabe is not allowed to retain even the tiniest imp, though it might be hiding in a pimpernel.”
“There was also an interesting parallel discussion about shorthand, perhaps the most contentious of the NCTJ's modules, and another about media law teaching being essential (with sensible comments from pimpernel, theorangemonkey, guidefriday, DavidHolmes and globalnomad).”
The Guardian: NCTJ supporters outgun detractors, but that isn't the end of the argument...
“February 15th, 2008 5: 40pm well said Ravi - the scarlet pimpernel AKA field will probably migrate to another page now to continue with his nonsense”
On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with...
“Having posted this in the * muliculural creeps*section it seems necessary to put it here also as the scarlet pimpernel AKA field posts his nonsence everywhere.”
On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with...
“Rare plants that occur or that have occurred here include heart leaf plantain, estuary beggar ticks, golden club, ovate spikerush, Parker's pipewort, Nuttall's micranthemum, Eaton's burmarigold, false pimpernel, winged monkey flower and swamp lousewort.”
“Or, pimpernel, and Egyptian alum roasted, and sprinkle on them the Orchomenian powder.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘pimpernel’.
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Flora
Flowers and plants have some of the most beautiful names.
These are often the common names, as opposed to the scientific or botanical names.daffodil, gardenia, tulip, snapdragon, violet, orchid, bleeding heart, daisy, lily, lilac, narcissus, rose and 278 more...
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Words beginning with P
peripatetic, pearlescent, perfunctory, palliate, permafrost, prosthetic, pliant, pluvious, percussion, procrastinate, progeria, prognathism and 49 more...
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•Public List: Pommelions and Papermills
Started on pommelion--a place for all those words that feature P, then M, then L inside them. Somewhere.
pommelion, papermill, pimple, pemoline, pall mall, pell-mell, peppermill, paleomammalogy, philomelian, pummel, pimpernel, pimpmobile and 32 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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Words I like
This is a list of my favourite words (phrases) in english, as a second language. I love them mostly because of how they sound and their meaning.
ninja, cookie, skill, zip, plentiful, digg, debris, pancake, cucumber, fetch, pot, backpack and 461 more...
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amber words
amber words is the term I use for words that are all but fossilized, in the sense that their use is always in the context of a single expression. Examples include caboodle, dudgeon, umbrage
sanctum, akimbo, amok, riddance, druthers, trove, caboodle, immemorial, blithering, dudgeon, swaddling, askance and 110 more...
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Tulip Names I
No rhyme or reason other than that I like the names. :-) For more flower fun, see these lists:
Rose words by mollusque
Rose varieties by mollusque
Tulip Names II: You Know ...abbey dream, abbey road, abodement, abra, abra elite, academician tstisin, acapulco, ace of diamonds, acropolis, ad hoc, adamo, addis and 597 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for pimpernel.
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