† polytrichonn.

Etymology: < classical Latin polytrichon maidenhair fern (Pliny; in post-classical Latin also politricum , polytricum ) < Hellenistic Greek πολύτριχον maidenhair fern, use as noun of neuter of ancient Greek πολύτριχος very hairy, bushy < πολυ- poly- comb. form + τριχ- , θρίξ hair (see tricho- comb. form¹). Compare Old French politricum , politricon (second half of the 13th cent. in an apparently isolated attestation; French †politricum (1660 in an apparently isolated attestation)), Middle French, French †polytrichon (1538), all in sense ‘kind of fern’, polytrichon doré golden maidenhair (1557 in the passage translated in quot. 1578 at sense 3), Italian politrico kind of moss (a1498). With sense 2 compare earlier polytrich n.It is unclear how the mistaken identification of polytrichon in sense 1 arose; it is found only in the Old English Herbarium where both politricum and hymele are used in the Old English version of the chapter devoted to Latin herba politricum maidenhair. Old English hymele usually denotes either the hop plant, Humulus lupulus, or bryony, Bryonia alba (it seems to be explicitly used for the latter later in the Herbarium); it is also occasionally used of other climbing plants. There is apparently no evidence for the identification made by some editors of this text of either Latin politricum or Old English hymele with the hop trefoil, Trifolium campestre, which is neither a climbing plant nor a fern (compare F. W. T. Hunger Herbal of Pseudo-Apuleius (1935), H. J. de Vriend Old Eng. Herbarium (1984)). The word apparently became obsolete in the early Middle English period, and was reborrowed in the 16th cent.