pimpernel (pimpernel)

[Early mod. E. pympernel; n. [Also piment a ; pimento (pi-men'to), pimiento, the pepper-plant, capsicum, pimienta, the fruit of this plant, applied also to Piment a officinal is, Jamaica pepper, = Pg. pimento, pi menta = F. piment, pepper (capsicum), Branch of Pimento ( Piment a officinal is ), with Fruits. a, flower; b, flower in longitudinal section, the stamens removed; c, fruit. tivated almost exclusively in Jamaica, whence called Jamaica pepper. The unripe berries, which are of about the size of a pea, are dried in the sun. The shell incloses two seeds, which are roundish and dark brown, and have a weak aromatic taste and smell, thought to resemble a mixture of those of cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, whence the name allspice. Pimento is a warm, aromatic stimulant, used chiefly as an adjuvant to tonics and purgatives. Both the fruit and the leaves yield an e ential oil closely resembling oil of cloves and often substituted for it. The name pimento is sometimes used to include P. acris. 2. The tree yielding this spice, a beautiful much-branching evergreen, 30 feet in height. pimento-walk (pi-men'tō-wâk), n. In Jamaica, a plantation of allspice or Jamaica pepper. pimgenett (pim'je-net), n. [ Also pimgennet, pimginit, pinjinnet; origin obscure.] A pimple on the face. [Slang.] Is it not a manly exercise to stand licking his lips into rubies, painting his cheeks into cherries, parching his pimginits , carbuncles, and buboes? Dunton's Ladies Dictionary , 1694. ( Nares .) pimlico (pimʻli-kō), n. [Imitative. Cf. pem blico .] The Australian friar-bird, Tropido rhynchus corniculatus: so called from its cry. See leatherhead , 2, and cut under friar - bird . pimp1 (pimp), n. [Origin unknown; according to Skeat perhaps orig. 'a fellow,' pimper , dre up smartly (= Pr. pimpar , pipar , render elegant); cf. pimpant , ppr., smart, spruce; appar. a nasalized form of piper , pipe, beguile, cheat, also excel; cf. Pr. pimp a , a pipe, birdcall, snare: see pipel . This explanation is, how (due to influence of the following p ) for orig. initial b ; also bipinella , bibinella , bimpinella , bibanella , prop. * bipennella or bipennula , pimpernel (also burnet), lit. 'the two-winged little plant,' so called by confusion with burnet, which has from two to four scale-like bracts at the base of the calyx; bipennis , two-winged: see bipennate.] 1. The garden-burnet, Pote rium San gui sorb a.-2. The burnet-saxifrage, Pimp in ell a Saxifraga.-3t. The selfheal, Bru nella vulgar is.-4. A plant, A nag all is arvensis, of the primrose family, sometimes distinguished as red or scarlet pimpernel, a native of the northern Old World and introduced into the United States and elsewhere. It is a neat procumbent herb with a wheel-shaped corolla, red in color, varying to purple, white, or blue. The flowers close at the approach of bad weather, whence it is named poor man's (or shepherd's ) weather-gla ; it is also called red chickweed, John - go - to bed- at - noon, etc. The name is extended also to the other species of the genus, as A. ten ell a, the bog-pimpernel, and A. cærule a ( A. Monelli ), the Italian or blue pimpernel, a garden species from southern Europe, with large flowers, deep-blue shaded with pink. See cut under circumsci ile. -Bastard pimpernel. Same as chaff weed. - False pimpernel. See Ilysanthes. Italian pimpernel. See def. 4, above. Seaor seaside-pimpernel, a sandwort, Are naria peploides. - Water-pimpernel, the brookweed, Samolus Valerandi. See Samolus. The name has also been applied to Veronica Beccabunga and V. A nag all is. Yellow pimpernel. See Lysimachia. Pimp in ell a (pim-pi-nel'ä), п. [NL. (Rivinus, 1699), Crabbe.