wormwood sage

9.9

A plant with soft leaves and a strong smell that lives for many years and has small brownish flowers

noun
/ˈwɜrmˌwʊd seɪdʒ/

Specialized

: salvia de ajenjo

The gardener planted wormwood sage along the dry, sunny border for its aromatic foliage.

Examples

The wormwood sage thrived in the well-drained soil of the northern hillside.
In traditional herbal medicine, wormwood sage has been valued for its potential therapeutic properties.
The wormwood sage grows beautifully in my garden.
Have you seen the wormwood sage in bloom?
In traditional herbal medicine, wormwood sage has been valued for its potential therapeutic properties.
The wormwood sage thrived in the well-drained soil of the northern hillside.
The gardener planted wormwood sage along the dry, sunny border for its aromatic foliage.

Synonyms

prairie sagewort

vswormwood sage

9.9

A perennial plant with soft, fragrant leaves and brownish-yellow flowers

has the same meaning but uses the original common name

Artemisia frigida

vswormwood sage

Specialized

9.9

A small aromatic plant with silvery green leaves and small brownish flowers that grows in dry northern areas

refers to the plant using the usual common name instead

Surface Forms

wormwood sage singular

wormwood sages plural

Morphology

wormwood + sage

Both constituents are plant names, and the compound noun follows the common English pattern X Y meaning 'a kind/type of Y associated with X' (i.e., a sage related to or resembling wormwood). Although the term is botanical and somewhat specialized, its meaning is directly inferable from knowing 'wormwood' and 'sage', so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily guess it denotes a particular plant.

Etymology

Wormwood sage likely comes from its two parts: the bitter wormwood, long used to treat stomach worms, and the soft, grey sage leaves people know. This clear image — a bitter, aromatic herb with sage-like leaves — explains why the name is used for this silky-leaved perennial today.