A Mediterranean plant whose roots produce a red dye, or the dye itself used in cosmetics and food coloring. It's the same plant as alkanna but with a diminutive suffix.
From Arabic al-ḥinnāʾ meaning 'the henna' with the diminutive suffix -et added in Old French. The word entered English via Old French alcanette in the 14th century. Despite the name connection to henna, alkanet comes from an entirely different plant family.
Alkanet's name means 'little henna' in a mix of Arabic and French, even though it's not related to henna at all! Medieval dyers created this linguistic confusion because both plants produced red coloring—showing how trade names don't always reflect botanical reality.
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