pimpernel

Meanings

1. A plant of the genus Pimpinella, especially burnet saxifrage (Pimpinella saxifraga).
2. Any of various plants of the genus Anagallis, having small red, white or purple flowers, especially the scarlet pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis).
3. Sanguisorba spp.
4. Great burnet (Sanguisorba officinalis)
5. Salad burnet (Sanguisorba minor).
6. A yellow pimpernel (Taenidia integerrima)
7. Someone resembling the fictional Scarlet Pimpernel; a gallant dashing resourceful man given to remarkable feats of bravery and derring-do in liberating victims of tyranny and injustice.

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman pimpernele et al., Middle French pimpinelle (“burnet saxifrage”) et al., from Medieval Latin pimpinella, pipinella, most likely from piper (“pepper”) because its fruit resembled peppercorns, although variants may suggest other derivations, bipinnella the bipennis (“two-winged”).