Definitions

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

  • noun Any of several usually hairy Old World plants, especially in the genera Anchusa, Brunnera, and Echium, having blue or violet flowers.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The popular name of the plant Anchusa officinalis.

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

  • noun (Bot.) A plant of the genus Anchusa, and especially the Anchusa officinalis, sometimes called alkanet; oxtongue.
  • noun the Asperugo procumbens and the Lycopsis arvensis.
  • noun a species of Echium.

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

  • noun botany Any of several plants in the borage family, Boraginaceae.

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

  • noun widespread European weed with spiny tongue-shaped leaves and yellow flowers; naturalized in United States
  • noun perennial or biennial herb cultivated for its delicate usually blue flowers

Etymologies

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

[Middle English buglosse, from Old French, from Late Latin būglōssa, from Latin būglōssos, from Greek bouglōssos : bous, ox; see gwou- in Indo-European roots + glōssa, tongue.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French buglosse, from Latin buglossa, buglossus, from Ancient Greek βούγλωσσον (bouglōssos, "Anchusa italica"), βούς (bous, "ox") + γλωσσον (glosson, "tongue")

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Examples

  • Bird's-foot trefoil and bugloss, poppies and cornflowers, fumitory and fleabane – there were about 20 species all in bloom and, aside from the great surge of colour, the highlight for me was the bumblebees, mainly common carder and red-tailed bumblebees, that trafficked through the flowers all day long.

    Country diary: Claxton, Norfolk Mark Cocker 2010

  • Into view comes an express steam locomotive pulling a long rake of timber carriages between the clumps of sea kale and viper's bugloss.

    Railway Light Peter Ashley 2008

  • The species endemic to the mountain include its two most representative species, sticky broom Adenocarpus viscosus and the widespread Teide white broom Spartocytisus supranubius, also Teide violet Viola cheiranthifolia which grows up to the summit, Teide edelweiss Gnaphalium teydeum, dwarf bugloss Echium auberianum, the thistle Stemmacantha cynaroides and the Teide catmint Nepeta teydia var. albiflora.

    Teide National Park, Spain 2008

  • Other Canary Island endemics are shrubby scabious Pterocephalus lasiospermus, Teide daisy Argynanthemum teneriffae, red bugloss Echium wildpretti, flixweed Descurainia bourgeauana and D. lemsii, Canary Island wallflower Erisimon scoparius and Canary Island wall lettuce Tolpis webbii.

    Teide National Park, Spain 2008

  • A few kilometers outside the Park and summit area, congenerics found include the legume Adenocarpus foliosus, the bugloss Echium virescens and the daisy Argynantemum frutescens.

    Teide National Park, Spain 2008

  • After a purge, 3 or 4 grains of bezoar stone, and 3 grains of ambergris, drunk or taken in borage or bugloss water, in which gold hot hath been quenched, will do much good, and the purge shall diminish less (the heart so refreshed) of the strength and substance of the body.

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

  • Borage and bugloss, sovereign herbs against melancholy; their wines and juice most excellent

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

  • Some are of opinion that all raw herbs and salads breed melancholy blood, except bugloss and lettuce.

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

  • Lit. “enamelled or painted with anchusa or alkanet,” a plant, the wild bugloss, whose root yields a red dye.

    Oeconomicus 2007

  • June come pinks of all sorts, specially the blushpink; roses of all kinds, except the musk, which comes later; honeysuckles; strawberries; bugloss; columbine; the French marigold, flos

    The Essays 2007

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  • Usage/historical note in comment on eryngo.

    January 9, 2017