See also: Pyrethrum

English edit

 
Tanacetum cinerariifolium
 
Tanacetum cinerariifolium

Etymology edit

Old English pyretre, from (and later reformed after) Latin pyrethrum (in Pliny), from Hellenistic Ancient Greek πύρεθρον (púrethron).

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

pyrethrum (countable and uncountable, plural pyrethrums)

  1. Any of several daisy-like perennial African plants of the genus Tanacetum, especially Tanacetum cinerariifolium. [from 10th c.]
    • 1986, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Decolonising the Mind, Heinemann, published 2005, page 10:
      We children would re-tell the stories the following day to other children who worked in the fields picking the pyrethrum flowers, tea-leaves or coffee beans of our European and African landlords.
  2. Anacyclus pyrethrum (pellitory of Spain)
  3. (organic chemistry) Any of several insecticides obtained from these plants; pyrethrin.

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