A plant, possibly ground ivy or another herb historically used medicinally or considered attractive to cats.
Compound of cat + wort (from Old English wyrt, meaning 'plant' or 'herb'). Many plants have 'cat' in their common names because of their effects on felines (catnip, cat's claw, cat's ear).
The suffix '-wort' in plant names (mugwort, figwort, liverwort) comes from Old English for 'plant,' making these ancient folk taxonomy names—they usually describe either the plant's appearance or its traditional medicinal use.
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