loosestrife

Calque of Ancient Greek λυσιμάχειον (lusimákheion), as if from λύσις (lúsis, “loosening”) + μάχη (mákhē, “battle, strife”).

loosestrife (countable and uncountable, plural loosestrifes)

1. Any of certain flowering plants of the genera Lythrum and Lysimachia, which are not closely related.
   • 1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, Duckworth, hardback edition, page 91,

     He had a suit of summer mufti, and a broad-brimmed blue beaver hat looped with leaves broken from the hedgerows in the lanes, and a Leander scarf tucked full of flowers: loosestrife, meadowrue, orchis, ragged-robin.

   • 2008, Allan M. Armitage, Herbaceous Perennial Plants, 3rd edition, page 672:

     Most loosestrifes thrive in the northern part of the United States and Canada but only a few make good garden plants for the South.

   • 2013, Théodore de Saussure, Jane F. Hill (translator), Chemical Research on Plant Growth, [Recherches chimiques sur la Végétation], page 22,

     I grew some peas, loosestrifes, and fleabanes [“inules”] in profound darkness, beneath two identical receptacles filled with atmospheric air.

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