lad's love
- noun
- Archaic
:
amor de muchacho
- The leaves of lad's love were often used for their pleasant scent in old herb gardens.
Examples
-
Some people add lad's love to homemade herbal teas, though it can be quite bitter.
-
In Victorian times, lad's love was commonly planted near doorways to keep insects away.
-
I bought some lad's love for my garden.
-
Have you ever tasted lad's love in a cocktail?
-
In Victorian times, lad's love was commonly planted near doorways to keep insects away.
-
Some people add lad's love to homemade herbal teas, though it can be quite bitter.
-
The leaves of lad's love were often used for their pleasant scent in old herb gardens.
Synonyms
1
9.9
A bitter herb with a strong smell used in some alcoholic drinks
A small bush with feathery leaves and a strong scent used in gardens and old recipes
Surface Forms
Morphology
lad's + love
The literal components 'lad's' (a young man’s) and 'love' (affection) would lead a B1 learner to interpret this as an expression about a young man’s affection, not a plant. The fact that 'lad's love' is a traditional botanical name for Artemisia abrotanum is historical/lexical knowledge rather than compositional meaning, so the herbal sense is not predictable from the parts and is therefore opaque.
Etymology
The herb lad's love may come from old gardens where a lad ('young man') carried or gave its strongly scented leaves as a simple love token. Because the plant smells strong and was used near doors and in drinks, that image stuck, so today lad's love means this aromatic herb.