Plants & CreaturesGreek → English
Peony
/ˈpiːəni/noun
A garden perennial with large, heavy, many-petalled flowers.
The Greek roots
παιωνία
paiōnía
peony, healing plant
Παιών
Paiṓn
physician of the gods
Literally: “the healer's plant”
The story of the word
Paion was doctor to the Olympian gods before the name settled onto Apollo, and the plant carries it because the root was a drug: Theophrastus and Dioscorides prescribe peony for cramps and for what they called the falling sickness. Diggers were told to lift it at night, since a woodpecker would peck out the eyes of anyone it caught at the work by day. The same god's name gives paean, a song of thanksgiving.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Old English → English
- First recorded
- Old English
Same family
paeanpaeon
In a sentence
The peonies flopped over after one night of rain.
She grows peonies she never cuts.