nasturtium

Middle English nasturtium, from Old English nasturcium (“watercress”), from Latin nasturtium.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /næsˈtɜːʃəm/
• (US) IPA^(key): /næsˈtɝʃəm/, /nəsˈtɝʃəm/

nasturtium (plural nasturtiums or nasturtia)

1. The popular name of the Tropaeolum genus of flowering plants native to south and central America.
   • 1922, Katherine Mansfield, At The Bay, Selected Stories, Oxford World's Classics paperback 2002, page 281

     Drenched were the cold fuchsias, round pearls of dew lay on the flat nasturtium leaves.

2. A genus, Nasturtium, that includes watercress.

• (species of the genus Tropaeolum): monks cress, Indian cress

• “nasturtium, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2003.

From naris (“nose”) + torquere (“to twist”)

nasturtium n (genitive nasturtiī); second declension

1. cress

Second declension neuter.

• nasturtium in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press