plumbago

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a warm-climate flowering plant of the genus Plumbago, commonly called leadwort

   Blue plumbago flowered along the sunny garden wall.

2. 2
   noun

   an old name for graphite or black lead

   The polished rock looked as though it had been coated with plumbago.

Borrowed from Latin plumbago, 'lead ore or leadwort,' from plumbum, 'lead.' The same name was applied to the plant and to graphite, once called black lead because its appearance suggested lead even though it contains carbon rather than the metal.

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