# mullein
## English

Wikispecies

### Alternative forms

* mullen

### Etymology

From Middle English moleyne, from Anglo-Norman moleine, which is either a Celtic borrowing and derived from Proto-Celtic *melinos (“yellow”) from *meli (“honey”) – an adjective found in Breton melen (“yellow”) and Welsh melyn (“yellow”) – or from mol (“soft”), from Latin mollis (“soft”), referencing the plant's fluffy, downy leaves, also apparent in synonyms such as feltwort, flannel leaf, and velvet plant.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈmʌlɪn/

### Noun

mullein (usually uncountable, plural mulleins)
* Any of a few hundred species of European and Asian plants, of the genus Verbascum, especially that majority that have yellow flowers. Some species have been introduced to other continents, where some are now seen as invasive pests. Some species, though far from all, have downy leaves, hence common names such as: "velvet plant". [from 14th c.]
    Synonyms: Aaron's rod, cow's lungwort, feltwort, flannel leaf, velvet plant
** 1578, Rembert Dodoens, “Of Mulleyne⸝ or Hyg[h]taper”, in Henry Lyte, transl., A Niewe Herball, or Historie of Plantes: […], London: […] [Henry [i.e., Hendrik van der] Loë for] Gerard Dewes, […], →OCLC, 1st part (Sundry Sortes of Herbes and Plantes), page 118:There be foure ſortes of Mulleyne, as [Pedanius] Dioſcorides writeth: wherof yͤ two firſt are white Mulleyne, and of them one is Male, and the other female: The third is blacke Mulleyne: The fourth is wilde Mulleyne. […] The white male Mulleyn (or rather Wolleyn) hath […] the whole top with his pleaſant yellow floures ſheweth like to a waxe Candell or taper cunningly wrought.
** 1940, Rosetta E. Clarkson, Green Enchantments: The Magic Spell of Gardens, The Macmillan Company, page 267:As we all know, witches ride through the air on a broom, but sometimes their means of locomotion was a bulrush, a branch of thorn, mullein stalks, cornstalk, or ragweed, called fairies' horse in Ireland.

#### Hyponyms

* common mullein (Verbascum thapsus)
* Cretan mullein (Verbascum creticum)
* dark mullein (Verbascum nigrum)
* great mullein (Verbascum thapsus)
* hoary mullein (Verbascum pulverulentum)
* moth mullein (Verbascum blattaria)
* mullein foxglove (Dasistoma macrophylla, syn. Seymeria macrophylla)
* mullein pink (Silene coronaria, syn. Lychnis coronaria)
* mullein wave (Scopula marginepunctata)
* nettle-leaved mullein (Verbascum chaixii)
* orange mullein (Verbascum phlomoides)
* petty mullein (Primula veris)
* purple mullein (Verbascum phoeniceum)
* sage mullein, sageleaf mullein (Phlomis spp.)
* showy mullein (Verbascum speciosum)
* turkey mullein (Croton setiger, syn. Eremocarpus setiger)
* twiggy mullein (Verbascum virgatum)
* wand mullein
* wavyleaf mullein Verbascum sinuatum)
* white mullein (Verbascum lychnitis)
* woolly mullein (Verbascum thapsus)

#### Translations
### References

* ↑ James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “Mullein”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC.
* ↑ “mullein”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.

## Finnish
### Noun

mullein
* instructive plural of mulli

### Anagrams

* minulle, munille