English
pimpernel
Pimpernel comes from Middle French pimpinelle ‘burnet saxifrage’, and goes back to Medieval Latin pimpinella.
- Medieval Latinc. 600–1500pimpinella
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600pimpinelle‘burnet saxifrage’
- Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400pimpernele
- Englishearliest quotation 1653pimpernel
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Medieval Latinc. 600–1500pimpinella
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600pimpinelle‘burnet saxifrage’
- Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400pimpernele
- Englishearliest quotation 1653pimpernel
Earliest quotation: 1653, Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physician Enlarged: “Common Pimpernel has diverse weak square stalks lying on…”
The story
From Anglo-Norman pimpernele et al., Middle French pimpinelle (‘burnet saxifrage’) et al., from Medieval Latin pimpinella, pipinella, most likely from piper (‘pepper’) because its fruit resembled peppercorns, although variants may suggest other derivations, bipinnella the bipennis (‘two-winged’).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *dwi- ‘two-’
through Medieval Latin piper ‘pepper’
Today it means
noun A plant of the genus Pimpinella, especially burnet saxifrage (Pimpinella saxifraga).
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Medieval Latin pimpinella / pimpernel