yarrow

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈjæɹəʊ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈjæɹoʊ/
• Rhymes: -ærəʊ

From Middle English ȝarowe, yarowe, yarwe, from Old English ġearwe, from Proto-Germanic *garwō (“yarrow, yarrow-like herbs”), perhaps ultimately cognate to Proto-Germanic *gelwaz (“yellow”). Cognate with Dutch gerw (“yarrow”) and German (Schaf-)garbe.

yarrow (usually uncountable, plural yarrows)

1. Any of several pungent Eurasian and North American herbs, of the genus Achillea, used in traditional herbal medicine.
2. Common yarrow, Achillea millefolium, the type species of the genus.
   • 1979, Victor Kaplan, The Woman who Gathered Yarrow; The Box; Miss Vesey's Other Leg, →ISBN, page 11:

     “Oh, yarrow! This is it,” she said, extracting a single long stemmed ferny grass with clusters of small white flowers from the bouquet in her hand.

• (Achillea spp.): milfoil, achillea
• (Achillea millefolium): devil's nettle, sanguinary, soldier's woundwort, thousand-leaf
• See also Thesaurus:yarrow

• Alps yarrow, Achillea distans
• Chinese yarrow, Achillea alpina
• Egyptian yarrow, Achillea aegyptiaca
• fernleaf yarrow, Achillea filipendulina
• Ligurian yarrow, Achillea ligustica
• noble yarrow, Achillea nobilis
• Siberian yarrow, Achillea sibirica

• Achillea on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• yarrow on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• yarrow at USDA Plants database

a green woodpecker, Picus viridis

Origin unknown. Perhaps imitative of the bird's cry; compare yaffle, hewhole.

yarrow (plural yarrows)

1. (Britain) The green woodpecker, Picus viridis.

• European green woodpecker on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Picus viridis on Wikispecies.Wikispecies

• arrowy