leontopetalon

From the Ancient Greek λεοντοπέτᾰλον (leontopétălon, “lion’s leaf”).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ɫe.ɔn.tɔˈpɛ.ta.ɫɔn]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [le.on̪.t̪oˈpɛː.t̪a.lon]

leontopetalon n (genitive leontopetalī); second declension

1. lion’s leaf, Leontice leontopetalum
   • AD 77–79, Gaius Plinius Secundus (author), Karl Friedrich Theodor Mayhoff (editor), Naturalis Historia (1906), book XXVII, chapter xiii:

     leontopetalon alii rapadion vocant, folio brassicae, caule semipedali. alae numerosae, semen in cacumine in siliquis ciceris modo, radix rapo similis, grandis, nigra. nascitur in arvis. radix adversatur omnibus serpentium generibus ex vino pota, nec alia res celerius proficit. datur et ischiadicis.

     The leontopetalon is called “pardalion” by some: it has a leaf like that of the cabbage, and a stem half a foot in height, with numerous lateral branches, and a seed at the extremities of them, enclosed in pods like those of the chick-pea. The root resembles that of rape, and is large and black: it grows in plough lands. The root, taken in wine, neutralizes the venom of all kinds of serpents; indeed, there is nothing known that is more speedily efficacious for that purpose. It is given also for sciatica. ― translation from: John Bostock and Henry Thomas Riley, The Natural History (1855), book XXVII: “A Description of Plants, and of the Remedies Derived from Them”, chapter lxxii: ‘The Leontopetalon or Pardalion: Two Remedies’

Second-declension noun (neuter, Greek-type).

• Translingual: Leontice leontopetalum, Leontopetalon

• “lĕontŏpĕtălon”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• lĕontŏpĕtălŏn in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 900/2.
• “leontopetalon” on page 1,017/2 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (1st ed., 1968–82)