cancer weed
- noun
- US
:
salvia cancerosa
- The field was covered in cancer weed, giving it a soft purple hue.
Examples
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In the summer, cancer weed blooms beautifully, showcasing its vibrant small purple flowers.
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Some gardeners find cancer weed difficult to remove from lawns.
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Researchers are studying the medicinal properties of cancer weed.
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The cancer weed grows abundantly in my garden.
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Many people confuse cancer weed with other plants.
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The garden was filled with cancer weed, which attracted many butterflies with its purple flowers.
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Some herbalists believe that cancer weed has various health benefits owing to its unique properties.
Synonyms
A plant like a sage from eastern United States used in traditional herbal remedies
A small sage plant with curved leaves like a harp and pale blue flowers that grows in eastern US woodlands
Surface Forms
Morphology
The lexical meaning 'a common name for a sage plant' is not derivable from the parts: while 'weed' signals a plant, 'cancer' evokes the disease and would likely mislead a B1 learner into thinking the plant causes or treats cancer. Botanical common names are often arbitrary or historical, so the overall sense is lexicalized and not predictable from the constituents.
Etymology
Cancer weed may come from old folk medicine. People long ago used this wild sage as a medicine to try to treat 'cancer', so they called the plant cancer and weed, and that name stuck to the hairy, purple-flowered plant.
