A plant valued for beekeeping, especially one that produces abundant nectar and pollen; a herb or flower favored by bees.
Compound of 'bee' (Old English 'bēo') and 'wort' (Old English 'wyrt,' meaning herb or plant, still seen in modern words like 'mugwort' and 'liverwort'). Medieval herbalists used '-wort' to categorize plants by their use or properties.
The suffix 'wort' is a living fossil in English—while we've mostly forgotten it means 'plant,' it still lingers in plant names like figwort, mugwort, and lungwort, a reminder that medieval people named plants by their primary use or who benefited from them.
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