gentian

Via Middle English from Latin gentiāna, which, according to Pliny the Elder, was named after Gentius (Ancient Greek Γένθιος (Génthios)), the last king of Illyria, who supposedly discovered the plant's medicinal benefits. This has been dismissed as folk etymology but the word may still ultimately be of Illyrian origin, as -an is a common suffix in Illyrian words.

• IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒɛnt͡ʃən/

gentian (plural gentians)

1. Any of various herbs of the family Gentianaceae found in temperate and mountainous regions with violet or blue flowers.
   • 1956, Delano Ames, Crime out of Mind‎, chapter 1:

     On the cover of the leaflet advertising the Alpenrose Gasthof in Zirl am Gurgl […] there is a decorative picture of a young woman. […] She has bright flaxen hair and laughing eyes of the same hue as the gentians in the meadow beyond the inn.

2. The dried roots and rhizome of a European gentian (Gentiana lutea), used as a tonic.

• fieldwort

• American gentian (Frasera spp.)
• bastard gentian (Gentiana acuta; Hypericum gentianoides)
• blind gentian (Gentiana andrewsii)
• bottle gentian (Gentiana spp.)
• closed gentian (Gentiana andrewsii)
• explorer's gentian (Gentiana calycosa))
• five-flowered gentian (Gentiana quinquefolia)
• fringed gentian (Gentianopsis spp.)
• gentian blue
• gentian violet
• great yellow gentian (Gentiana lutea)
• green gentian (Frasera spp.)
• horse gentian (Triosteum spp.)
• marsh gentian (Gentiana pneumonanthe)
• prairie gentian (Eustoma grandiflorum)
• soapwort gentian (Gentiana saponaria)
• spurred gentian (Halenia spp.)
• stiff gentian (Gentianella quinquefolia)
• striped gentian (Gentiana villosa)
• tufted gentian (Gentianopsis holopetala, syn . Gentiana holopetala)
• tulip gentian (Eustoma grandiflorum)
• white gentian (Gentiana alba)
• yellow gentian (Gentiana alba (US), Gentiana lutea)
• *gentian at OneLook Dictionary Search

• anteing, antigen