amaracus

From Latin amāracus.

amaracus (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) Marjoram.
   • 1842, Tennyson, “Oenone”, in The Lady of Shallot and other poems:

     Then to the bower they came, / Naked they came to that smooth-swarded bower, / And at their feet the crocus brake like fire, / Violet, amaracus, and asphodel, / Lotos and lilies: and a wind arose, / And overhead the wandering ivy and vine, / This way and that, in many a wild festoon / Ran riot, garlanding the gnarled boughs / With bunch and berry and flower thro' and thro'.

• amaracus at OneLook Dictionary Search
• amaracus in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911

• caramusa

• amāracum

From Ancient Greek ἀμάρακος (amárakos), ἀμάρακον (amárakon). Possible doublet of marathrum, marum, marrubium, and maiōrana.

amāracus m (genitive amāracī); second declension

1. marjoram (Origanum majorana)

• Identification with Origanum majorana is uncertain, but O. m. var tenuifolium, native to Cyprus fits Pliny's description especially well. Other species of Origanum, such as O. onites, are possible.

Second-declension noun.

• (Medieval Latin): maiorana, majorana

• “amaracus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “amaracus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• amaracus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
• “amaracus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers