Myrtle
/ˈmɜːrtəl/noun
An evergreen Mediterranean shrub with glossy aromatic leaves, white flowers and dark berries.
The Greek roots
Literally: “the myrtle shrub”
The story of the word
Mýrtos looks like a Semitic loanword taken into Greek along with the plant itself, as happened with several Mediterranean aromatics. It belonged to Aphrodite, so brides wore it, and a Roman general granted an ovation rather than a full triumph wore myrtle instead of laurel: a wreath that told everyone exactly which rank of victory he had won. English got the form through Medieval Latin myrtilla, a diminutive, which is also why blueberries are myrtilli in botanical Latin.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Medieval Latin → English
- First recorded
- 15th century
Same family
In a sentence
Myrtle grows wild along the whole coast and smells like it after rain.
She carried myrtle in her wedding bouquet because her grandmother had.