Word of the day: manzanita

The word of the day is manzanita:

1. any of several western North American shrubs or small trees belonging to the genus Arctostaphylos, of the heath family, having leathery leaves and clusters of white to pink flowers.
2. the fruit of one of these shrubs.

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/manzanita)

"Nola suggested a flat spot up the hill near some manzanita, which would help block the wind."

 - Lori Lansens, The Mountain Story

Word of the day: sisal

The word of the day is sisal:

—noun

1. Also called sisal hemp. a fiber yielded by an agave, Agave sisalana, of Yucatán, used for making rope, rugs, etc.
2. the plant itself.

"While Morley and company found no German submarine bases, he did produce nearly 10,000 pages of intelligence reports documenting everything from navigable shoreline features to the economic impact of sisal production."

- Montgomery McFate, "Anthropology and Counterinsurgency: The Strange Story of their Curious Relationship", March - April 2005 Military Review

Word of the day: ipecac

The word of the day is ipecac:

1. the dried root of a shrubby South American plant, Cephaelis ipecacuanha, of the madder family.
2. the plant itself.
3. a drug consisting of the dried roots of this plant, used as an emetic, purgative, etc., and as the source of emetine.

1788, borrowing via Port. of a shortened form of Tupi ipecacuana (1682), a medicinal plant of Brazil, the Indian word said to mean "small plant causing vomit."

"The apothecary thus soon filled up with an enormous list of remedies for cancer: tincture of lead, extracts of arsenic, boar's tooth, fox lungs, rasped ivory, hulled castor, ground white-coral, ipecac, senna, and a smattering of purgatives and laxatives."

 - Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

Word of the day: furze

The word of the day is furze:

1. gorse.

("evergreen shrub," O.E. fyrs, of unknown origin, with no known connections.)

"Left and right were promontories blackened with mussels and tide plants to high-tide mark, yellow from there to their furzy tops...

"Over the promontory's furzy top she saw an explosion of turnstones tossed up just above the burst of spray."

 - Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose

Word of the day: gentian

The word of the day is gentian:

1. any of several plants of the genera Gentiana, Gentianella, and Gentianopsis, having usually blue, or sometimes yellow, white, or red, flowers, as the fringed gentian of North America, or Gentiana lutea, of Europe. Compare gentian family.
2. any of various plants resembling the gentian.
3. the root of G. lutea, or a preparation of it, used as a tonic.

O.E., from L. gentiana, said by Pliny to be named for Gentius, king of ancient Illyria who discovered its properties. This is likely a folk-etymology, but the word may be Illyrian, since the suffix -an frequently occurs in Illyrian words. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/gentian)

"It was incorrigibly Hudson River school—brown light, ragged elms, romantic water.  There they sat on the grass confronting nature.  When they had eaten, they did what poets and philosophers did outdoors in the early years of the picturesque—strolled, picked early autumn leaves or late gentians."

 - Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose