wintergreen

English

Etymology

From winter +‎ green.

Noun

wintergreen (plural wintergreens)

1. (obsolete) Any evergreen plant.
2. One of various not closely related evergreen plants, including:
   1. Plants in shrub genus Gaultheria, commonly known as wintergreen, especially:
      1. Gaultheria procumbens, native to North America, having solitary white flowers and aromatic leaves (checkerberry or teaberry)
      2. Gaultheria humifusa – alpine wintergreen
      3. Gaultheria ovatifolia – western teaberry or Oregon spicy wintergreen
      4. Chimaphila maculata – striped wintergreen, pipsissewa
   2. Plants in any of several other genera in the herbaceous family Ericaceae, including:
      1. Genus Pyrola, native to northern temperate and Arctic regions.
      2. Genus Orthilia
      3. Genus Moneses
      4. Genus Chimaphila (prince's pine, pipsissewa)
   3. Some species of the herbaceous genus Trientalis, in family Primulaceae (chickweed wintergreen)
3. The spicy red berries of Gaultheria procumbens.
4. The oil, methyl salicylate, obtained from these berries.
5. The aroma of the oil, methyl salicylate, however derived.

Synonyms

• (perennial of the genus Pyrola): shinleaf
• (Gaultheria procumbens): boxberry, checkerberry, partridgeberry, spiceberry, teaberry

Derived terms

• American wintergreen (Pyrola americana)
• chickweed wintergreen
• creeping wintergreen
• English wintergreen
• false wintergreen
• flowering wintergreen
• lesser wintergreen
• oil of wintergreen
• one-flowered wintergreen
• round-leaved wintergreen
• spotted wintergreen (Chimaphila maculata)
• striped wintergreen
• whitevein wintergreen
• wintergreen barberry
• wintergreen oil

 

Translations

evergreen — see evergreen

evergreen perennial of the genus Pyrola

• Faroese: vetrarlilja f
• Finnish: talvikki (fi)
• French: pirole (fr) f, pyrole (fr) f
• German: Wintergrün (de) n
• Polish: gruszyczka (pl) f
• Russian: груша́нка (ru) f (grušánka)

Gaultheria procumbens

• Finnish: lamosalali
• German: Scheinbeere f
• Russian: Гаультерия лежачая f (Gaulʹterija ležačaja)
• Spanish: siempreverde (es) f

See also

• pinedrops (Pterospora andromedea)
• pinesap (Monotropa hypopitys)
• shinleaf (Pyrola elliptica)
• surgical spirit

 

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /win.təʁ.ɡʁin/, /win.tɛʁ.ɡʁin/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

wintergreen m (plural wintergreens)

1. wintergreen (oil)

Further reading

• “wintergreen”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.