Etymology: < Old French lavandier (masculine), lavandiere (feminine) (modern French lavandière feminine) = Spanish lavandero (masculine), -era (feminine), Portuguese lavandeira (feminine), Italian lavandaio (masculine), lavandaja , lavandara (feminine), < late Latin lavandārius , -āria (whence Old High German laventari , ladantari ‘fullo’), < lavanda (originally neuter plural ‘things to be washed’, but in Romance used as feminine singular: compare Italian lavanda washing), < lavāre to wash: see lave v.¹Compare Latin lavandāria, neuter plural (occurring once) ‘things to be washed’. For the formation compare also medieval Latin referendarius.

Etymology: < Anglo-Norman lavendre (Old French *lavandre, whence modern Provençal alebandro) for *lavendle < medieval Latin lavendula, also lavandula, livendula, livendola (10–11th cent. in Goetz Corp. Gll. Latin. III. 629/5), levindola, lavindula; compare Italian lavendola (Diez; not in dictionaries), Spanish lavándula (in dictionaries only as a botanical name); also French lavande (cited from Christine de Pisan, 14–15th cent.), Italian lavanda, Spanish lavanda. The medieval Latin lavendula was taken into Old High German or early Middle High German as lavendla (in manuscripts of 12th cent.; see Ahd. Glossen III. 105), whence Middle High German and early modern German lavendel(e, lobendel, lobengele, laubangel, lavandel, lavander, lafander; the standard form in German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish is now lavendel. The current hypothesis is that medieval Latin lavendula is a corrupt form of lavandula , a diminutive of the shorter word which appears in Italian as lavanda (see lavender n.¹). This is commonly identified with Italian lavanda ‘washing’, the supposition being that the name refers to the use of the plant either for perfuming baths (so already in 16th cent. writers) or as laid among freshly washed linen (see A. 2 below). But on the ground of sense-development this does not seem plausible; a word literally meaning ‘washing’ would hardly without change of form come to denote a non-essential adjunct to washing. Besides, the earliest form appears to be livendula ; if this could be connected with Latin līvēre to be livid or bluish, the sense would be appropriate, but the formation is obscure; M. Paul Meyer suggests, as a possibility, that the original form may have been *līvindula for *līvidula , < līvidus livid adj. (A medieval Latin word of about the same date and of apparently similar form is calendula marigold.) It is not certain that the word has not changed its application, as in early glosses livendula, lavendula, are given as synonymous with samsucus and amaracus, which properly mean ‘marjoram’; but plant-names were applied often very loosely. The Italian lavanda, French lavande, would seem to be a back-formation from medieval Latin lavandula.

Etymology: < lavender n.²