pimpernel

From Anglo-Norman pimpernele et al., Middle French pimpinelle (“burnet saxifrage”) et al., from Late Latin pipinella, most likely from Vulgar Latin *piperinus (“pepper-like”), because its fruit resembled peppercorns, from Latin piper. It has also been linked to Latin bipinnella, from bipennis (“two-winged”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɪmpənɛl/

pimpernel (plural pimpernels)

1. (now rare) A plant of the genus Pimpinella, especially burnet saxifrage, Pimpinella saxifraga. [from 16th c.]
2. Any of various plants of the genus Anagallis, having small red, white or purple flowers, especially the scarlet pimpernel, Anagallis arvensis. [from 15th c.]
   • 1653, Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physician Enlarged, Folio Society 2007, p. 221:

     Common Pimpernel has diverse weak square stalks lying on the ground, beset all along with two small and almost round leaves at every joint [...].

3. Sanguisorba spp. [from 16th c.]
   1. Great burnet (Sanguisorba officinalis) [from 16th c.]
   2. Salad burnet (Sanguisorba minor). [from 16th c.]
4. (Canada, US) The yellow pimpernel (Taenidia integerrima)
5. (figuratively) 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. [from 20th c.]
   • (Can we date this quote?), Hal Lehrman

     Lined up solidly with the Pimpernels and with the persecuted.