Plants & CreaturesGreek → English
Alyssum
/əˈlɪsəm/noun
A low-growing garden plant of the cabbage family, grown for dense heads of small honey-scented flowers.
The Greek roots
ἄλυσσον
álusson
plant said to cure rabies
ἀ-
a-
not, without
λύσσα
lússa
rage, rabies
Literally: “without madness”
The story of the word
Dioscorides records the plant as a remedy for the bite of a mad dog, worn or drunk, and the name is simply a denial of the disease: a-lussa, no rabies. Lussa was also the personified fury who drove Heracles to kill his children in Euripides. The plant now sold as sweet alyssum was moved out of the genus long ago and is properly Lobularia.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
Same family
lyssaviruslyssa
In a sentence
White alyssum spilled over the edge of the wall and hummed with bees.
Sow alyssum thinly in gravel and it will seed itself for years.