Etymograph

English

lepidium

Lepidium comes from Latin lepidium ‘a plant, garden cress, pepperwort, Lepidium…’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElepidium‘a plant, garden cress, pepperwort, Lepidium sativum’
  2. mulmodernLepidium
  3. Englishearliest quotation 2019lepidium

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElepidium‘a plant, garden cress, pepperwort, Lepidium sativum’
  2. mulmodernLepidium
  3. Englishearliest quotation 2019lepidium

Earliest quotation: 2019, Green Fillers for Flower Arrangements: “Danziger’s new Green Dragon, a delicate and airy Lepidium,…”

The story

Borrowed from translingual Lepidium, from Latin lepidium and Ancient Greek λεπίδιον (lepídion, literally “little scale”), diminutive of λεπίς (lepís, “scale, flake”).

Linked words

through Ancient Greek λέπω ‘to peel’

lemma, leptin, 15 more

through Ancient Greek λεπίς ‘scale, flake’

leper, 13 more

Today it means

noun Any cruciferous plant of the genus Lepidium, often called garden cresses or pepperworts.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Latin lepidium / lepidium

Shirt and support for this word