loosestrife

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English

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purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria)
gooseneck loosestrife (Lysimachia clethroides)
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Etymology

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Calque of Ancient Greek λυσιμάχειον (lusimákheion), as if from λύσις (lúsis, loosening) + μάχη (mákhē, battle, strife).

Noun

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loosestrife (countable and uncountable, plural loosestrifes)

  1. Any of certain flowering plants of the genera Lythrum and Lysimachia, which are not closely related.
    • 1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, Duckworth, hardback edition, page 91,
      He had a suit of summer mufti, and a broad-brimmed blue beaver hat looped with leaves broken from the hedgerows in the lanes, and a Leander scarf tucked full of flowers: loosestrife, meadowrue, orchis, ragged-robin.
    • 2008, Allan M. Armitage, Herbaceous Perennial Plants, 3rd edition, page 672:
      Most loosestrifes thrive in the northern part of the United States and Canada but only a few make good garden plants for the South.
    • 2013, Théodore de Saussure, Jane F. Hill (translator), Chemical Research on Plant Growth, [Recherches chimiques sur la Végétation], page 22,
      I grew some peas, loosestrifes, and fleabanes [“inules”] in profound darkness, beneath two identical receptacles filled with atmospheric air.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Anagrams

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