Baldrian

See also: baldrián

German

Etymology

From Middle High German baldriān (also: waldriān, valdriān), from Old High German baldriān. Seemingly together with Hungarian bojtorján (“burdock”) (√ *boltorján) loaned in the Dark Age period from the late 6^th to early 8^th century from Turkic or Proto-Mongolic, the Pannonian Avars being direct neighbours of the Franks, cognate to Turkish بالدران‎ / baldıran (“hemlock”) which see for more Turkic cognates.

Ultimately from Proto-Mongolic, reflected as
Middle Mongolian ᠪᠠᠯᠴᠢᠷᠭᠠᠨ᠎ᠠ (balčirɣan-a, “false hellebore; angelica”), composed as ᠪᠠᠯᠴᠢᠷ (balčir, “infant; young, tender, fresh, rank”) + plant name suffix  ᠭᠠᠨᠠ (-ɣana),
Mongolian балчиргана (balčirgana, “false hellebore; angelica”), composed as балчир (balčir, “infant; young, tender, fresh, rank”) + plant name suffix -гана (-gana)

Old High German had as another term for the valerian denemarka, denmarka, denemark, denimarka, in Middle High German denemarka, denemarcha, only retained in Alemannic German dialects, as tannenmark, tammarken etc.

The Medieval Latin valeriāna (“valerian”), from which the most widespread European names for the valerian derive, is most likely from German / Frankish, distorted after the verb valēre (“to be powerful”) or also the gentilic name Valerius – early enough to be calqued into Proto-Slavic *odolěnъ (“valerian”)

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈbaldriˌaːn/
Audio (file)

Noun

Baldrian m (genitive Baldrians, plural Baldriane)

valerian

Declension

Declension of Baldrian

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der	Baldrian	die	Baldriane
genitive	eines	des	Baldrians	der	Baldriane
dative	einem	dem	Baldrian	den	Baldrianen
accusative	einen	den	Baldrian	die	Baldriane

Descendants

→ Czech: baldrián
→ Russian: балдырья́н (baldyrʹján)
→ Slovak: baldrián
→ Slovene: báldrijan
→ Sorbian:
Lower Sorbian: bandrija

Upper Sorbian: baldrijan