pimpernel Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun European garden herb with purple-tinged flowers and leaves that are sometimes used for salads
    salad burnet; Poterium sanguisorba; burnet bloodwort.
  2. noun any of several plants of the genus Anagallis

WordNet

Pim"per*nel noun
Etymology
F. pimprenelle; cf. Sp. pimpinela, It. pimpinella; perh. from LL. bipinnella, for bipinnula two-winged, equiv. to L. bipennis; bis twice + penna feather, wing. Cf. Pen a feather.
Definitions
  1. (Bot.) A plant of the genus Anagallis, of which one species (A. arvensis) has small flowers, usually scarlet, but sometimes purple, blue, or white, which speedily close at the approach of bad weather.

Webster 1913