Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of several plants in the parsley family, especially the Mediterranean species Levisticum officinale, having edible leaves and leafstalks and small, aromatic, seedlike fruit used as seasoning.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The umbelliferous plant Levisticum officinale, a native of the mountains of central Europe, cultivated in old gardens. This is the lovage of the older books. It is sometimes distinguished as Italian or garden lovage.
  • noun Another plant of the same family, Ligusticum Scoticum, often called Scotch lovage. The name extends also to other species of the genus.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Bot.) An umbelliferous plant (Levisticum officinale), sometimes used in medicine as an aromatic stimulant.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A perennial Mediterranean herb, Levisticum officinale, with odor and flavor resembling celery.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun herb native to southern Europe; cultivated for its edible stalks and foliage and seeds
  • noun stalks eaten like celery or candied like angelica; seeds used for flavoring or pickled like capers

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Anglo-Norman luvesche, from Old English lufestice, from Medieval Latin levistica, from Late Latin levisticum, alteration of Latin ligusticum, from neuter of Ligusticus, Ligurian, from Ligurēs, the Ligurians.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Anglo-Norman luvache, loveche et al., and Middle French levesche, from Late Latin levisticum, probably alteration of Latin ligusticum, from Ligusticus ("Ligurian"), ultimately from Ancient Greek Λίγυς.

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Examples

  • Other herbs and plants there are which retain the names of the countries from whence they were transported, as the Median apples from Media, where they first grew; Punic apples from Punicia, that is to say, Carthage; Ligusticum, which we call lovage, from

    Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel 2002

  • Other herbs and plants there are which retain the names of the countries from whence they were transported, as the Median apples from Media, where they first grew; Punic apples from Punicia, that is to say, Carthage; Ligusticum, which we call lovage, from

    Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel 2002

  • Ligusticum, which we call lovage, from Liguria, the coast of Genoa; Rhubarb from a flood in Barbary, as Ammianus attesteth, called Ru; Santonica from a region of that name; Fenugreek from Greece; Gastanes from a country so called; Persicaria from Persia; Sabine from a territory of that appellation; Staechas from the Staechad Islands; Spica Celtica from the land of the Celtic Gauls, and so throughout a great many other, which were tedious to enumerate.

    Gargantua and Pantagruel, Illustrated, Book 3 Fran��ois Rabelais 1518

  • “She drank this awful stuff—lovage, which is some sort of herbal diuretic, because she had trouble with … you know… water retention.”

    Dreaming of the Bones Deborah Crombie 1997

  • The delegates dined on baked Scottish salmon, Welsh lamb, and something called lovage (see the full menu here), all prepared by Naked Chef Jamie Oliver.

    AlterNet.org Main RSS Feed 2009

  • And it even applies to the other ingredient in the anti-alcoholism six-pack cocktail; buy "lovage root" and you'll very probably get the usual kind of lovage,

    How To Spot A Psychopath 2008

  • And it even applies to the other ingredient in the anti-alcoholism six-pack cocktail; buy "lovage root" and you'll very probably get the usual kind of lovage,

    How To Spot A Psychopath 2008

  • And it even applies to the other ingredient in the anti-alcoholism six-pack cocktail; buy "lovage root" and you'll very probably get the usual kind of lovage,

    How To Spot A Psychopath 2008

  • And it even applies to the other ingredient in the anti-alcoholism six-pack cocktail; buy "lovage root" and you'll very probably get the usual kind of lovage,

    How To Spot A Psychopath 2008

  • And it even applies to the other ingredient in the anti-alcoholism six-pack cocktail; buy "lovage root" and you'll very probably get the usual kind of lovage,

    How To Spot A Psychopath 2008

Comments

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  • Also the name of a group whose sole offering was the very entertaining Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By.

    August 6, 2008

  • Usage/historical note in comment on dicalamentis.

    November 28, 2017