astragalus

[prettygoodword]

astragalus (a-STRAG-uh-luhs) - n., milkvetch, any legumous herb or small shrub of genus Astragalus; the dried root of the East Asian herb Mongolian milkvetch(A. mongholicus, syn. A. membranaceus), used in traditional Chinese herbal medicine; the anklebone, more commonly called talus.


The story is a bit tangled, but here goes. Ancient Greek astrágalos meant, originally, the bones of the vertebrae, and by extension the anklebone because it has a similar bump, and also a vetch, black bitter vetch (Lathyrus niger), apparently because the flowers also have a similar shape. (Also, dice, which were originally made from vertebrae, and a game played with them, but this is irrelevant to the English word at hand.) When Linnaeus described the related genus of milkvetches, he ... let's say repurposed ... the name. And because I am secretly 12 years old, I've chosen for illustration a pic of Astragalus testiculatus:


Thanks, WikiMedia!

---L.

Comments

[dhampyresa]

I can dee where the testicalus comes from /also 12

[prettygoodword]

>snicker