herb

From Middle English herbe, erbe, from Old French erbe (French herbe), from Latin herba. Initial h was restored to the spelling in the 15th century on the basis of Latin, but it remained mute until the 19th century and still is for many speakers. Doublet of yerba.

• (UK, General Australian, New Zealand) enPR: hû(r)b, IPA^(key): /hɜːb/

  • Audio (General Australian):

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• (US, Canada) enPR: (h)ûrb, IPA^(key): /(h)ɝb/

  • Audio (US, with silent ⟨h⟩):

    (file)

  • Audio (US, with ⟨h⟩ pronounced as /h/):

    (file)

• North American pronunciation of the word varies; some speakers include the /h/ sound and others omit it, with the /h/-less pronunciation being the more common. Individual speakers are usually consistent in their choice, but the choice does not appear to be correlated with any regional, socioeconomic, or educational distinctions.
• Outside of North America, the /h/-less pronunciation is restricted to speakers who have a general tendency to "drop the h" in all words.
• The /h/-less pronunciation is the older; the pronunciation with /h/ is a later spelling pronunciation.
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)b
• Homophone: Herb (for the pronunciation /hɜː(ɹ)b/)

herb (countable and uncountable, plural herbs)

1. (countable) Any green, leafy plant, or parts thereof, used to flavour or season food.
2. (countable) A plant whose roots, leaves or seeds, etc. are used in medicine.

   If any medicinal herbs used by witches were supposedly evil, then how come people from at least the past benefited from the healing properties of such herbs?

   • 1973, Joe C. Huang, “The Formative Years - The Village”, in Heroes and Villains in Communist China: The Contemporary Chinese Novel as a Reflection of Life‎^[1], New York: Pica Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 33:

     For twenty-five years he has done all sorts of odd jobs: digging ginseng (a herb) in the Long White Mountains, fishing in the Black River, and washing gold dust at Hailanpao. Without this education, he would never have become an undaunted revolutionary.

3. (uncountable, slang) Cannabis.

   Synonyms: grass, weed; see also Thesaurus:marijuana

   • 1981 February 14, Andrea Loewenstein, “Voices in the Night”, in Gay Community News, volume 8, number 29, page 8:

     The room was thick and sour with the smell of herb.

   • 1995, Harmony Korine, Kids, spoken by Casper:

     You think he's got any herb?

4. (countable, botany) A plant whose stem is not woody and does not persist beyond each growing season
5. (uncountable, obsolete) Grass; herbage.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     flocks grazing the tender herb

6. (countable, US, slang) (always with pronounced /h/) A lame or uncool person.
   • 2008, Maryann Dickar, Corridor Cultures: Mapping Student Resistance at an Urban School, page 88:

     George (AO) describes the tie between fighting and respect: 'Cause some people could come up to you and say, “Ah, he's a herb, he can't fight. He's nothing.”

• See also Thesaurus:seasoning

• Behr, Hebr., breh, hreb

From Middle High German hare, here (inflected harwe, herwe), from Old High German *haro, from Proto-West Germanic *haru.

• IPA^(key): /hɛrp/, [hɛɐ̯p], [hɛʁp]

• Audio:

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• Audio (Austria):

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herb (strong nominative masculine singular herber, comparative herber, superlative am herbsten)

1. (of food and drink, e.g. beer) slightly bitter or sharp to the taste, often in a pleasant way; tart (but not in the sense of “sour”)
2. (figurative, chiefly of events or deeds) harsh; hard

• Herbheit

• “herb” in Duden online
• “herb” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Borrowed from Old Czech erb, herb, from Middle High German erbe (“heritage”), from Old High German erbi, from Proto-West Germanic *arbī, from Proto-Germanic *arbiją, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃orbʰ-yo-m, from the root *h₃erbʰ- (“to change allegiance, status, ownership”). Compare German Erbe.

• IPA^(key): /ˈxɛrp/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛrp
• Syllabification: herb

herb m inan

1. (heraldry) coat of arms
2. (heraldry) armigerous clan; cf. Polish heraldry

• → Lithuanian: herbas
• → Old Ruthenian: гербъ (herb)
  • Belarusian: герб (hjerb)
  • Ukrainian: герб (herb)
  • → Russian: герб (gerb), гербъ (gerb) — Pre-reform orthography (1918)
    • → Azerbaijani: gerb
    • → Kildin Sami: ге̄ррп (gierrp)
    • → Latvian: ģerbonis
    • → Macedonian: грб (grb)
    • → Uzbek: gerb
• → Romanian: herb
• → Yiddish: הערב (herb)

• herb in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• herb in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Borrowed from Polish herb.

herb n (plural herburi)

1. (heraldry, dated) coat of arms

• herb in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN

• herf

From Arabic حَرْب (ḥarb, “war”).

• IPA^(key): /herb/

herb

1. (dated) war

• lec
• lej