Definitions

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

  • noun A Eurasian mint (Mentha pulegium) having small lilac-blue flowers and ovate or nearly orbicular leaves that yield an essential oil formerly used medicinally and as an insect repellent.
  • noun An aromatic eastern North American mint (Hedeoma pulegioides) having purple-blue flowers and lanceolate to ovate leaves that yield a similar essential oil.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A much-branched prostrate perennial herb, Mentha Pulegium, of Europe and western Asia.
  • noun A plant of the genus Hedeoma; the American pennyroyal. See Hedeoma, and oil of hedeoma (under oil).

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

  • noun (Bot.) An aromatic herb (Mentha Pulegium) of Europe; also, a North American plant (Hedeoma pulegioides) resembling it in flavor.
  • noun (Bot.) See Blue curls, under Blue.

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

  • noun A plant of the mint family, Mentha pulegium, formerly much used in various medicinal treatments and as a flea repellant.

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

  • noun erect hairy branching American herb having purple-blue flowers; yields an essential oil used as an insect repellent and sometimes in folk medicine
  • noun Eurasian perennial mint have small lilac-blue flowers and ovate leaves; yields an aromatic oil

Etymologies

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

[Probably by folk etymology from Middle English puliol real, from Anglo-Norman : puliol, thyme (from Latin pūlegium) + real, royal (from Latin rēgālis; see regal).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Apparently an alteration (after penny) of Anglo-Norman puliol royal, from Latin pulegium.

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