Gutwort

/ˈɡʌtwɜrt/ noun

Definition

A plant believed to have medicinal properties for the stomach or digestive system; a plant used traditionally as a digestive aid.

Etymology

From gut (stomach) plus wort (a plant, from Old English wyrt), following the pattern of naming medicinal plants after the body part they treat.

Kelly Says

Medieval herbalists named plants by what they supposedly cured—'gutwort' follows the 'Doctrine of Signatures' belief that plants shaped like or named after body parts would heal those parts, a belief that was sometimes right by accident.

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