When I use a word . . . . Medical hyacinths

Abstract

The word “vaccinia” refers not only to the orthopoxvirus used in vaccination against smallpox; it is also the plural of the Latin word “vaccinium,” originally used in English to describe purplish-black berries from a variety of plants. “Vaccinium” nowadays refers to various species of plants, such as Vaccinium myrtillus, bilberries, in the family of Ericaceae, “Hyacinthaceae” is the name given to a different family of plants, and “Hyacinthoides” is the name of a genus of plants in the family Asparagaceae. However, in these cases there may be an etymological connection with “Vaccinium,” via a Cretan form of the Greek name of the youth Hyacinth, whose blood, spilt when he died during a game of quoits with the god Apollo, turned into a plant with purple flowers, thought to be a form of iris or larkspur, but nowadays called hyacinth. Potential medical uses of the pyrrolizidine compound hyacinthacine have been proposed, but, so far at least, its therapeutic applications seem to be less powerful than the myth.