houseleek

[prettygoodword]

houseleek (HOUS-leek) - n., any of several succulent European flowering plants (genus Sempervivum) with reddish flowers and leaves forming dense basal rosettes.


Which name is amusing enough, but alternate names include liveforever (a literal translation of the Latin genus name), hen and chicks (for propagating smaller plants asexually), Jupiter's beard, thunderplant (both for supposely warding off lightning), old-man-and-old-woman, and the reason I picked this word in the first place: welcome-home-husband-though-never-so-drunk. Often seen on the roof or eaves of old houses. Name dates back to Old English. Note: not a true leek, or even closely related.

---L.

Comments

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

My secret etymology sense thinks that not enough work has been done in the onion family (leek/allium) of words and that the "houseleek" moniker may have something to do with sempervivum's bulbousness. Alliums all are layered bulbs with a superficially similar structure, after all.

Or, of course, not.

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

It could be!