ajuga

noun

aju·​ga ˈa-jə-gə How to pronounce ajuga (audio)
plural ajuga or ajugas
: bugle entry 1

Examples of ajuga in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Ajuga reptans, commonly called ajuga or bugleweed. — Janet Carson, Arkansas Online, 13 Dec. 2021 Instead: Though its flowers aren't fragrant, ajuga also can grow in shady spots similar to lily-of-the-valley, but won't take over the garden. — Megan Hughes, Better Homes & Gardens, 30 Sep. 2022

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from New Latin, genus name, probably from a mistaken reading of Latin abiga, name for a plant of the genus (as Ajuga chamaepitys), taken by pliny the Elder as a derivative of Latin abigere "to drive away, reject, dispel," from the use of the plant as an abortifacient

Note: The genus Ajuga was initiated by linnaeus in Species plantarum, vol. 2 (Stockholm, 1753), p. 561. The plant name ajuga appears in sixteenth-century editions of Pliny's Historia naturalis (book 24, chapter 19) and in Latin translations of Dioscorides, sometimes alongside abiga. The ultimate source of the misreading has apparently not been determined. In an edition of Historia naturalis by the physician and humanist Alessandro Benedetti (Venice, 1507) the word is written a juga, as if a prepositional phrase, though the index spells it as a single word.

First Known Use

1640, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of ajuga was in 1640

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Cite this Entry

“Ajuga.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ajuga. Accessed 10 Mar. 2025.

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