Goutweed
/ˈɡaʊtˌwiːd/noun
A perennial plant in the carrot family, also called bishop's weed, often used as a ground cover and sometimes considered invasive.
Did you know?Goutweed’s older name, bishop’s weed, shows how plants were often baptized with spiritual or medical authority long before modern botany standardized their names.
Etymological Timeline
Old English
OE
gōt wyrt
“literally “gout plant” or a plant thought to treat gout”
Middle English
ME
goutewede
“a weed associated with gout or used against it”
16th Century
English
goutweed
“the plant name becomes standardized in English herbals”
Modern English
English
goutweed
“the common name for Aegopodium podagraria”