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Webster 1913 Edition


Yerba


Yer′ba

,
Noun.
[Sp.]
(Bot.)
An herb; a plant.
☞ This word is much used in compound names of plants in Spanish; as, yerba buena
[Sp., a good herb]
, a name applied in Spain to several kinds of mint (
Mentha sativa
,
Mentha viridis
, etc.), but in California universally applied to a common, sweet-scented labiate plant (
Micromeria Douglasii
).
Yerba dol osa
.
[Sp., herb of the she-bear.]
A kind of buckthorn (
Rhamnus Californica
).
Yerba mansa
.
[Sp., a mild herb, soft herb.]
A plant (
Anemopsis Californica
) with a pungent, aromatic rootstock, used medicinally by the Mexicans and the Indians.
Yerba reuma
.
[Cf. Sp.
reuma
rheum, rheumatism.]
A low California undershrub (
Frankenia grandifolia
).

Definition 2024


yerba

yerba

English

A yerba bush

Noun

yerba (usually uncountable, plural yerbas)

  1. Ilex paraguariensis, a species of holly native to southern South America; or the dried leaves and twigs of this plant, used to make the caffeine-rich beverage mate.
    • 1839, Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle:
      The storehouses at Talcahuano had been burst open, and great bags of cotton, yerba, and other valuable merchandise were scattered on the shore.
    • 1854, P. L. Simmonds, The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom:
      This was the place at which the leaves and small sprigs of the yerba tree, when brought from the woods, were first scorched--fire being set to the logs of wood within it.
    • 1910, Various, Argentina From A British Point Of View:
      His preparations for breakfast are simple, and he is ready to start out after half an hour spent in imbibing a few mates full of yerba infusion.

See also

Anagrams


Asturian

Etymology

From Latin herba.

Noun

yerba f (plural yerbes)

  1. grass

Istriot

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Latin herba.

Noun

yerba f

  1. grass

Spanish

Etymology

From Latin herba, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰreH₁- (to grow, become green).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ˈʝeɾ.βa]

Noun

yerba f (plural yerbas)

  1. yerba (Ilex paraguaiensis)
  2. Alternative form of hierba

Derived terms