whitlowwort

noun

any of various low-growing tufted plants of the genus Paronychia having tiny greenish flowers and usually whorled leaves; widespread throughout warm regions of both Old and New Worlds; formerly thought to cure whitlows (suppurative infections around a fingernail)

• Hypernyms: ↑groundcover, ↑ground cover

• Member Holonyms: ↑Paronychia, ↑genus Paronychia

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\\ˈ ̷ ̷ ̷ ̷ˌ ̷ ̷\ noun

Etymology: whitlow + wort; from its being supposed to cure whitlow

: a plant of the genus Paronychia

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/hwit"loh werrt', -wawrt', wit"-/, n.

any of several small, tufted plants belonging to the genus Paronychia, of the pink family, native to temperate and warm regions, having opposite or whorled leaves and tiny, greenish flowers.

[1640-50; WHITLOW + WORT²]