Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Definition: Vervain |
VervainNoun1. Any of numerous tropical or subtropical American plants of the genus Verbena grown for their showy spikes of variously colored flowers. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "vervain" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1855. (references) |
Etymology: Vervain \Ver"vain\, noun. [from Old English expression verveine, French verveine, from the Latin expression verbena, plural verbenae sacred boughs of laurel, olive, or myrtle, class of plants; compare to verbenaca vervain. Compare to Verbena.]. (Websters 1913) |
"Vervain" is a common misspelling or typo for: certain, overlain, pertain, terrain, verbatim, verdant, versant, verve. |
| Domain | Definitions |
Literature | Vervain Called "holy herb," from its use in ancient sacred rites. Also called "pigeons' grass," "Juno's tears," and "simpler's joy." Supposed to cure scrofula, the bite of rabid animals, to arrest the diffusion of poison, to avert antipathies, to conciliate friendships, and to be a pledge of mutual good faith; hence it was anciently worn by heralds and ambassadors. (See Roodselken. ) Verbena is the botanical name. "The term Verbena (quasi herbena) originally denoted all those herbs that were held sacred on account of their being employed in the rites of sacrifice."- Mill: Logic, book iv. chap. v. p. 485. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonym: VervainSynonym: verbena (n). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Vervain |
| English words defined with "vervain": Peristerion ♦ Simpler's joy ♦ Verbenate, vervain family, Vervain mallow, vervain sage. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "vervain": Divine Plant ♦ Herba Sacra ♦ Roodselken ♦ Sacred Weed. (references) |
| "Vervain" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Vervain" is used about 2 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 2 | 245,945 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "vervain": BLUE VERVAIN ♦ vervain family ♦ vervain mallow ♦ vervain sage. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
vervain | 22 |
blue vervain | 7 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "vervain"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | رعى الحمام نبات. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | върбинка. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | sporýš. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | verbena (holy wort, verbena), jernurt (aconite, holy wort, verbena). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | verbena (holy wort, verbena), ijzerhard (holy wort, verbena). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | rohtorautayrtti (holy herb). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | verveine (verbena). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Eisenkraut (holy wort, verbena). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | σταυρόχορτο (holy herb), σταυροβότανο (holy herb), γοργόγιαννη (holy herb), βερβένα (holy herb), ιερατάνη (holy wort, verbena), λουΐζα (holy wort, lemon-scented verbena, verbena), αϊγιάννης (holy herb). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | vasfû (verbena). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | verbena (holy wort, verbena). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | vervine (verbena), lus (herb, leek, plant). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | ervainvay verbena (holy wort, verbena). (various references) вербена (lantana, verbena). (various references) bearbhain. (various references) vrbena (verbena). (various references) verbena (fair, festival, holy wort, verbena). (various references) verbena (verbena), järnört (verbena). (various references) mine çiçeği. (various references) вербена (verbena). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | Verbena officinalis. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "vervain": vervains. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-e-i-n-r-v-v" | |
-1 letter: naiver, ravine, vainer. | |
-2 letters: aiver, invar, naevi, naive, raven, ravin, riven, varve. | |
-3 letters: airn, aver, earn, nave, near, nevi, rain, rani, rave, rein, rive, vain, vair, vane, vein, vena, vera, vier, vina, vine, viva, vive. | |
-4 letters: ain, air, ane, ani, are, ave, ear, era, ern, ire, nae, ran, rei, rev, ria, rin, van, var, vav, via, vie. | |
-5 letters: ae, ai, an, ar, en, er, in, na, ne, re. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-e-i-n-r-v-v" | |
+1 letter: vervains. | |
+3 letters: oversaving, renovative, survivance, vivandiere. | |
+4 letters: overvaluing, survivances, vivandieres. | |
+5 letters: aversiveness, conservative, overfavoring, preventative. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)56 65 72 76 61 69 6E |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)...- . .-. ...- .- .. -. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01010110 01100101 01110010 01110110 01100001 01101001 01101110 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)V e r v a i n |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0056 0065 0072 0076 0061 0069 006E |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)56718488677580 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Images: Slideshow | 5. Usage Frequency 6. Expressions 7. Expressions: Internet 8. Translations: Modern | 9. Translations: Ancient 10. Derivations 11. Anagrams 12. Orthography | 13. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.