pyrethrum

Any of several daisy-like perennial African plants of the genus Tanacetum, especially Tanacetum cinerariifolium.

Noun

  1. Any of several daisy-like perennial African plants of the genus Tanacetum, especially Tanacetum cinerariifolium.
    • A common beverage credited with aphrodisiac virtue was old wine containing the pungent root of the plant pyrethrum or pellitory. - 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 250:
    • We children would re-tell the stories the following day to other children who worked in the fields picking the pyrethrum flowers, tea-leaves or coffee beans of our European and African landlords. - 1986, Ngũgĩ wa...
  2. Anacyclus pyrethrum (pellitory of Spain)
  3. Any of several insecticides obtained from these plants; pyrethrin.

Origin

From Old English pyretre, from (and later reformed after) Latin pyrethrum (in Pliny), from Hellenistic Ancient Greek πύρεθρον (púrethron).

Forms

pyrethrums