Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various perennial herbaceous plants of the genus Agrimonia in the rose family, having pinnately compound leaves and spikelike clusters of small yellow flowers.
  • noun Any of several similar or related plants, such as the hemp agrimony.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The general name of plants of the genus Agrimonia, natural order Rosaceæ, which includes several species of the northern hemisphere and South America.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A genus of plants of the Rose family.
  • noun The name is also given to various other plants

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Any of several perennial herbaceous plants, of the genus Agrimonia, that have spikes of yellow flowers.
  • noun Any of several unrelated plants of a similar appearance.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a plant of the genus Agrimonia having spikelike clusters of small yellow flowers

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French aigremoine, from Latin agrimōnia (influenced by Old French aigre, sour), alteration of argemōnia, from Greek argemōnē, poppy, possibly from argos, white; see arg- in Indo-European roots.]

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Examples

  • My friend agrimony is thinking about med school, and is doing some information gathering.

    attention, doctor friends! agrimony 2007

  • Gatekeeper and speckled wood butterflies flit between hemp agrimony, dusty ferns, patches of yellow bird's-foot trefoil and blue tufted vetch.

    Country diary: St Stephens-by-Saltash 2011

  • Odd then, that the hemp agrimony behind should stand tall and unbending.

    Country diary: Bedfordshire 2010

  • A few swallows swoop low and the rank green is broken by pink hemp agrimony, cream meadowsweet, blue tufted vetch and purple knapweed.

    Country diary 2010

  • Hemp agrimony, bird's-foot trefoil and knapweed attracted the attention of commas, common blues, red admirals and the only painted ladies we've encountered so far this year.

    Country diary: Durham coast 2010

  • I believe I have meals scheduled with agrimony, bryant and michele_blue, and arcaedia and possibly mcurry, who claimed there would be sad faces if not.

    tired me agrimony 2007

  • Given that aberdeen, whose media tastes largely coincide with mine, adores it, and that agrimony squees happily over it, this was a fairly safe bet.

    daaaaaaaamn. salymander 2006

  • And seeing them there among the grass and springing agrimony, it suddenly occurred to him that both pairs were exceedingly ugly to see.

    The Invisible Man Herbert George 2006

  • I began pounding wormwood and agrimony in my mortar, meanwhile wondering where the bloody hell the thing had come from.

    A Breath of Snow and Ashes Gabaldon, Diana 2005

  • The figure and shape of the leaves thereof is not much different from that of those of the ash-tree, or of agrimony; the herb itself being so like the Eupatorian plant that many skilful herbalists have called it the Domestic Eupator, and the Eupator the Wild

    Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel 2002

Comments

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  • agrimony a clear herb - greek root or something sour - french root or both: that's the thankfulness

    January 14, 2007

  • I gave some to my ex-wife.

    September 19, 2009

  • I apparently didn't write down what made me first look this up, but I am now looking it up again because of the below:

    "She could do nothing about the woman's blindness but sent her on her way with an eyewash of weak, strained agrimony that, with regular use, should get rid of the inflammation."

    Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin, p 112 of the Berkley paperback edition

    February 26, 2012