There is a kind of grass called fox grass. The plant is called in French gantelée (little glove); in Latin, digitalis, and in German, fingerhut (thimble). I have dealt with henbane, hemlock, horehound, and mistletoe and know how thorny the gentlest flowers may be for a language historian. These are chemicals that affect the heart. The foxglove gets its name from the old Anglo-Saxon word “foxes-glew,” which means “fox music.” This is apparently because the flowers resemble an ancient hanging bell of the same name. This means no deadheading spent flowers or you will not get seeds. Each of them needs an explanation, and I think Skeat pooh-poohed the question too hastily. It's uncertain how the name of the foxglove plant was derived, but there are two main theories. Anatoly Liberman is the author of Word Origins And How We Know Them as well as An Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology: An Introduction. Legend has it that a botanist Fuchs first named it and the name corrupted or morphed into foxglove, according to An echo of the once well-known tale, North Germanic or Classical? Prior may have found bielde in some dictionary or he may have copied the word with two mistakes. It may have gained popularity after the publication of the book English Etymologies by William Henry Fox (!) In Dumfriesshire (south-central Scotland), foxglove is called tod-tail, and tod means “fox.” The second element poses no problems, for the bells of this plant bear some resemblance to fingers. By a funny coincidence, the Latin name digitalis was coined in 1542 by Leonhart Fuchs (1501-1566), a famous scholar and one of the founders of modern botany (German Fuchs means “fox”). But none of that kept it from being a very popular medicine in Europe in the 18th century. He chose as his perennial target was the inability of his countrymen to understand that etymology is a science rather than mildly intelligent guesswork. This is because it can have some health benefits, particularly as a heart stimulant. The Latin name was given by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in 1753 because, much more straightforwardly, he thought the flowers looked like the fingertips of gloves. 0. Fireweed is a native plant thats found throughout the temperate northern hemisphere including some areas in the boreal forests. A disputed but appealing origin for the name was advanced by William Henry Fox Talbot, who proposed that the whimsical ye […], […] telling me, for example, about a visit of a fox in the correspondent’s garden (in connection with my post on foxglove). The puzzling part is fox-. How Did the Foxglove Get Its Name? The foxglove, Digitalis purpurea is as the name suggests purple shading to white with dark purple blotches. So those old doctors were onto something, but they would frequently accidentally kill their patients with their foxglove medicine, so for crying out loud, don’t cut yourself any leaves to do some DIY heart care. Asked By Wiki User. Origins of Basil . It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Click to see full answer Keeping this in consideration, how did the snapdragon get its name? Required fields are marked *. Walter W. Skeat broke many a spear defending the simplest etymology (foxglove is fox + glove), but neither he nor anyone else has been able to explain how the Anglo-Saxons came by this name: why fox? Hopefully, it’ll help make your holiday season as special as possible. Fischer Energy changed its name to Foxglove Energy. The common name larkspur is shared between perennial Delphinium species and annual species of the genus Consolida. The Foxglove family name was found in the USA in 1880. Featured image: Foxglove. Also, at his time, the literary norm in Norway required that Norwegian words be spelled according to the rules of Danish orthography, and the Danish for bell is bjælde. Digitalis is poisonous; it can be fatal even in small doses. 2 doctors agree. Over the decades after the publication of his book, a great many people died from the improper use of this herb. All members of the genus Delphinium are toxic to humans and livestock. In Great Britain it also earned the name bombweed due to the rapid colonization of land that was bombed during WWII. Fireweed is an important plant for honey producers as it attracts the bees and hummingbirds as … Beware of etymologists who pepper their explanations with no doubt, undoubtedly, obviously, and the like. They are great garden plants for shady borders and woodland gardens. His column on word origins, The Oxford Etymologist, appears on the OUPblog each Wednesday. Isoplexis is part of the same family as foxglove (scrophulariaceae); in fact it was once classified under the genus digitalis. A commonly accepted idea is that the name came from the Anglo-Saxon term "foxes glofa," which means "glove of the fox." Fushsius gave the flower its […], […] the origins of the name. In order to have more foxglove plants the next year, the flowers need to be allowed to bloom and set seed. The common foxglove, Digitalis purpurea thrives in a shady spot in our yard. This day has arrived. Guilty of what Shakespeare in Sonnet 62 called the sin of self-love, I particularly relish […], […] made a brief, unhelpful excursion into the etymology of digitalis then a Google search,  quickly led me to The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. The Century Dictionary gives several names of the Digitalis: fox-fingers, ladies’ fingers, and even dead-men’s bells. What Is The Winter Solstice: First Day Of Winter History, Fresh-Cut Pine Tree Smell: Perfect Christmas Tree Memories, Norfolk Island Pine – The Perfect Christmas Tree. According to the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension, "The name foxglove is from the old English name "foxes glofa." See more about it below. Send your etymology question to him care of blog@oup.com; he’ll do his best to avoid responding with “origin unknown.” Subscribe to Anatoly Liberman’s weekly etymology articles via email or RSS. Under the right growing conditions, foxglove often lasts longer, blooming another year or two beyond what their … It was such even in Old English (foxes glofa, though the name seems to have been applied to a different plant), so that nothing has been “corrupted,” to use one of the favorite words of 19th-century etymologists, both professional and amateurs. Herbalists first began experimenting with foxglove centuries ago. It was originally Folksglove - the glove of the 'good folk' or fairies, whose favourite haunts were supposed to be in the deep hollows and woody dells, where the Foxglove delights to grow. Most types of foxglove plants are grouped with the biennials in the field of botany. We will only use your personal information to register you for OUPblog articles. Let’s learn more about foxglove flower history. […] fairies… little folk’s fingers… folk’s… fox… foxgloves… it’s a well-known etymologist’s nightmare. Now, in the days of our ancestors, as every one knows, these little elves were called in English ‘the good folks.’ No doubt, then, these flowers were called ‘the good folks’ gloves’, a name since shortened into foxgloves [sic]. Our Privacy Policy sets out how Oxford University Press handles your personal information, and your rights to object to your personal information being used for marketing to you or being processed as part of our business activities. The Foxglove derives its common name from the shape of the flowers resembling the finger of a glove. The origin of plant names is one of the most interesting areas of etymology. http://bit.ly/dqWnQQ #etymology […], […] Last week I wrote that one day I would reproduce some memorable statements from Skeat’s letters to the editors. The Latin name was given by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in 1753 because, much more straightforwardly, he thought the flowers looked like the fingertips of gloves. 0 comment. Prior, the author of Popular Names of British Plants (1863), was a first-rate specialist in botany, but not in etymology, and his assertion (foxglove from foxes-glew, allegedly, meaning “folk’s music,” “in reference to the favourite instrument of an earlier time, a ring of bells hung on an arched support, the tintinnabulum, and thus answering to Norwegian Revbielde” [that is, “foxbell”]) is also sheer fantasy. The moral: one should never copy foreign words without looking them up in good contemporary sources. It was first known by the Anglo-Saxon name foxes glofa(the glove of the fox), because its flowers look like the fingers of a glove. It was the original source of the drug called digitalis. Old Engl. The history of foxglove plants is a strange study in language. Description Foxglove is a source of digitalis prescribed by doctors to strengthen the heart and regulate its beat. They noted a constellation of side effects, ranging from vomiting to death, and described foxglove as a … The honey bees and carpenter bees love it, as does a single earwig, which apparently considers it its "hidey hole." You can see how Foxglove families moved over time by selecting different census years. Linnaeus’ real family name had been Ingermarsson. Derived from the Greek words "anti," meaning like, and "rhin," meaning nose, antirrhinum, the snapdragon's botanical name, is a fitting description of this snout-shaped flower.While their actual origin is unknown, it's believed that snapdragons were originally wildflowers in Spain and Italy. It is certain that horehound has nothing to do with hounds, and I hope to have shown that henbane did not get its name because it is particularly dangerous to hens (which hardly ever peck at it, and even if they did, why should they have been chosen as the poisonous plant’s preferred victims?). A self-educated man in everything that concerned the history of Germanic, he became the greatest expert in Old and Middle English and an incomparable etymologist. Molecular data show that Consolida, as well as another segregate genus, Aconitella, are both embedded in Delphinium. 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