tailwort

9.9

A hairy plant with blue flowers from Europe that people eat like spinach

noun

Specialized

: borraja

Traditional recipes sometimes called for tailwort to be cooked like spinach.

Examples

Herbalists valued tailwort for its supposed medicinal properties throughout Europe.
In her garden, she grew tailwort to add a fresh, herbal note to her salads.
I found some tailwort growing in my garden.
We prepared a salad with fresh tailwort and tomatoes.
Many people enjoy eating tailwort raw in salads for its crisp texture and unique flavor.
In herbal medicine, tailwort was often recommended for its beneficial effects on digestion.
During the summer, tailwort flourished in the sunny areas of the garden, attracting various pollinators.

Synonyms

borage

vstailwort

1 9.4

A yearly herb with hairy leaves and blue star-shaped flowers used in salads and medicine

is a historical culinary name stressing eating and cooking rather than botanical form

Borago officinalis

vstailwort

Specialized

9.8

A hairy annual herb with blue flowers that people eat in salads, cook as a vegetable, and use as medicine

is the traditional name emphasizing historic culinary use rather than the formal botanical name

Surface Forms

tailwort singular

tailworts plural

Morphology

tailwort = tail + wort (semi-transparent) = tail + wort

Formally a transparent compound 'tail' + 'wort', but 'wort' is archaic/unfamiliar to many learners, so the meaning as a plant name may not be fully obvious.

Etymology

Tailwort breaks into tail and wort; wort is an old word for 'plant', seen in names like St. John's wort, and tail points to a tail-like stem or root on the flower. So tailwort means 'a plant with a tail', a simple image that helps remember this small herb used in salads and medicine.