germander
(dʒəˈmændə(r))
Forms: (5 germawnder, 5, 7 germandir, 6 germandre, germaunder, jarmander, 7 jermander), 6– germander.
[ad. med.L. germandra, -drea (F. germandrée), altered form of gamandrea, -ia (whence Ger., Du. gamander), corruptly ad. late Gr. χαµανδρυά, which is itself a corruption of Gr. χαµαίδρυς, lit. ‘ground oak’, f. χαµαί on the ground + δρῦς oak.
Another corrupt form based on the late Gr. word is It. calamandrea. The correct Gr. form was adopted in med.L. as chamædrȳs, whence It. camedrio, Sp. camedréo.]
The name of the plants of the genus Teucrium, esp. T. Chamædrys, the Common or Wall Germander. garlic or water germander = T. Scordium. wood germander = T. Scorodonia. In the U.S. applied to T. Canadense (Cent. Dict.). Also applied to certain species of Veronica, now chiefly in the compound names germander chickweed (Veronica agrestis); germander speedwell or wild germander (Veronica Chamædrys).
In early quots. it is often uncertain what plant is meant. The attrib. use in Tennyson refers to the beautiful blue colour of the flowers of Veronica Chamædrys.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 190/2 Germawnder, herbe, germandra. 1548 Turner Names of Herbes (1881) 26 Chamedrys called..in englishe Germander or englishe Triacle. 1578 Lyte Dodoens i. lxxv. 111 Of Scordium or water Germander. Ibid. i. lxxvi. 112 Of Teucrion or wilde Germander. 1587 Harrison England ii. xx. (1877) i. 326 Our common germander or thistle benet is..of..great power in medicine. 1597 Gerarde Herbal ii. cciii. 534 Tree Germander is called in..Latine Teucrium: in English great Germander, vpright Germander, and Tree Germander. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 269 Take of Jermander four ounces, of Gumdragant, and of dryed Roses. 1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. 109/1 Tree Germander hath the Flowers..white, in a round pointed husk. 1741 Compl. Fam.-Piece ii. iii. 380 There are several other Trees and Shrubs which are now in Flower, as..Tree Germander, Lupine. 1789 Pilkington Derbysh. (1803) I. 325 Veronica chamædris, Wild germander. 1811 A. T. Thomson Lond. Disp. (1818) 398 Wall germander has been accounted tonic, stomachic [etc.]. 1860 Gosse Rom. Nat. Hist. 6 The germander speedwell, with its laughing blue eyes, spangling every hedge-bank. 1865 ― Land & Sea (1874) 15 The wood germander, or bitter sage, whose wrinkled leaves were used during the scarcity of the last war as a substitute for tea. |
| attrib. 1712 tr. Pomet's Hist. Drugs I. 82 Divided into five Leaves, as the Germander Flower. 1864 Tennyson Sea Dreams 4 They, thinking that her clear germander eye Droopt in the giant-factoried city-gloom, Came, with a month's leave given them, to the sea. |