Latin

Noun

libadion n ‎(genitive libadiī); second declension

1. centaury (the herb)
   • AD 77–79, Gaius Plinius Secundus (author), Karl Friedrich Theodor Mayhoff (editor), Naturalis Historia (1906), book XXV, chapter xxxi:

     [E]st alterum centaurium cognomine lepton, minutis foliis, quod aliqui libadion vocant, quoniam secundum fontes nascitur, origano simile, angustioribus et longioribus foliis, anguloso caule, palmum alto, fruticosum, flore lychnidis, radice tenui et supervacua, suco efficax.

     There is another centaury also, with diminutive leaves, known by the additional name of “lepton.” By some persons it is called “libadion,” from the circumstance that it grows upon the borders of fountains. It is similar to origanum in appearance, except that the leaves are narrower and longer. The stem is angular, branchy, and a palm in height; the flower is like that of the lychnis, and the root is thin, and never used. ― translation from John Bostock and Henry Thomas Riley, The Natural History (1855), book XXV: “The Natural History of Wild Plants”, chapter xxxi: ‘The Centaurion Lepton, or Libation, known also as Fell Terræ: Twenty-two remedies’

Declension

Second declension, Greek type.

References

• lĭbădĭon in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “libadion”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.