cranesbill

Meanings

1. Any flowering plant of the genus Geranium found throughout the temperate zone.
2. A pair of long-beaked forceps.

Etymology

First attested in the 1500s. Calque of Dutch craenhals; cognate with German Kranichhals and Middle Low German kraneshals, all likely derived from Latin geranium, from Ancient Greek γέρᾰνος (gérănos, “crane”). By surface analysis, crane + -s- + bill. The flowering plant is so called because of the lengthened appendage of the seed vessel.