scabious
adjective, noun
Forms scabiouses
- adjective Having scabs.
- adjective Of or pertaining to scabies.
- noun Any of various herbaceous plants of the genus Scabiosa.
- noun Any of several plants of the genus Knautia.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Medieval Latin scabiōsus (“scabious”), from Latin scabiēs (see scabies); partly reinterpretable as scab + -ious.
From Medieval Latin scabiōsa, substantivized from scabiōsus (“scabious”), see Etymology 1; the name comes from their medical use in the Middle Ages to cure scabies and leprosy.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Consisting of scabs; rough; itchy; leprous; as, scabious eruptions. Arbuthnot.
- noun Any plant of the genus Scabiosa, several of the species of which are common in Europe. They resemble the Compositæ, and have similar heads of flowers, but the anthers are not connected. Sweet scabious (a) Mourning bride. (b) A daisylike plant (Erigeron annuus) having a stout branching stem.
Etymology [L. scabious, from scabies the scab: cf. F. scabieux.]
Etymology [Cf. F. scabieuse. See Scabious, a.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “scabious”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details