A fragrant plant from the Origanum genus with healing properties, especially Origanum dictamnus from Crete.
Variant spelling of dittamy, from Greek 'diktamnon.' Both spellings coexist in English, reflecting different historical pathways through Romance languages and early modern orthographic variation.
Medieval herbals couldn't stop writing about dittany's supposed miraculous powers, and one famous claim was that wounded deer sought it out to heal—a myth that persisted because the plant actually does have wound-healing compounds!
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