hellebore
Hellebore (noun) means any of the flowering garden plants of the genus Helleborus, in the buttercup family, traditionally credited with medicinal properties. Example: “Physicians once prescribed hellebore in the belief that it could cure serious illness.”
How to use hellebore
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishA hellebore is usually a garden plant of the genus Helleborus, grown for its flowers and once credited with medicinal properties; the name is also used, in an older and now dated sense, for a toxic pesticide extract from a different plant genus.
The garden-plant sense is everyday gardening vocabulary, while the pesticide sense now sounds dated.
If someone mentions hellebore in a garden context they almost always mean the garden plant, not the old pesticide.
Trace the full origin ↓Fill the gap
Can you complete this real example?
Physicians once prescribed _____ in the belief that it could cure serious illness.
Etymology
Hellebore descends through Old French and Medieval Latin from the Ancient Greek helleboros. The initial h was later added back into English spelling to match the Greek original, even though it had dropped out in the French and Latin forms.
