Any of various plants of the genus Scrophularia, named for their supposed medicinal use in treating fig-like growths or tumors on skin.
From fig + wort (plant). Old English 'wyrt' meant plant or herb. Medieval herbalists believed these plants resembled figs or could cure fig-like swellings, hence the name.
Figwort plants were so important to medieval healers that they named them after a disease they thought the plant could cure — this naming tells us exactly what ancient doctors were worried about treating.
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