herbaceous

adj

Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *gʰreh₁-der. Proto-Indo-European *gʰer-dʰ? Latin herba Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂-k-s Proto-Italic *-āks Latin -āx Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Indo-European *-éyos Proto-Italic *-ejos Proto-Italic *-eos Latin -eus Latin -āceus Latin herbāceusbor. English herbaceous Borrowed from Latin herbāceus (“grassy”).

1. Not woody, lacking lignified tissues.

   “[…] and it contains a very good selection of shrubs and herbaceous plants, which, having good soil and plentiful drenchings of water from a garden-engine all the summer, thrive to admiration.”

   “Iversen holds that these changes indicate the arrival of farmers, the phase of Landnam or land occupation, that the charcoal comes from clearance fires; that herbaceous pollen suggests the opening-up of the land; cereals, fields; the plantains, weeds; and birch and hazel, regeneration of the forests after the exhaustion of the plot.”

2. Not woody in flavor.
3. Feeding on herbs and soft plants.

   “The hippopotamus is an herbaceous animal.”