A Grammatical Dictionary of Botanical Latin

-fuge (Eng. noun suffix), “one that drives away” (WIII): in L. comp. -fugus,-i (s.m.II), abl. sg. -fugo; also -fuga,-ae (s.f.I) [> LL. fuga,-ae (s.f.I), flight, avoidance, aversion > L. fugo,-avi,-atum, 1. to put to flight; this word has evolved from ‘escaping’ to forcing someone or something to escape]; see refugens,-entis (part.B): escaping, fleeing; see refugium,-ii (s.n.II); see bane; see -cidium,-ii (s.n.II).

NOTE: -fuge is often translated into English as -‘bane,’ such as Cimicifuga,-ae (s.f.I), Bugbane: “name from cimex, a bug, and fugare, to drive away” [Ranunculaceae](Fernald 1950).

- [Actaea CIMICIFUGA] Cimicifuga foetida: herba foetidissima ad cimices fugandos in Sibiria adhibita (DeCandolle), an herb very bad-smelling used in Siberia for driving away insects.

Vermifugus,-i (s.m.II), abl. sg. vermifugo: (in medicine) a vermifuge (Bennett; Muldoon), that which destroys or expels parasitic worms, as of the intestine; also vermifuga,-ae (s.f.I) (Bennett).

- [Actaea CIMICIFUGA] Cimicifuga foetida: herba foetidissima ad cimices fugandos in Sibiria adhibita (DeCandolle), an herb very bad-smelling used in Siberia for driving away insects.

Febrifuga,-ae (s.f.I): a febrifuge, that which drives off fevers (Bennett).

History---Centaury “The name of the genus to which it is at present assigned, Erythraea, is derived from the Greek erythros (red), from the colour of the flowers. The genus was formerly called Chironia, from the Centaur Chiron, who was famous in Greek mythology for his skill in medicinal herbs, and is supposed to have cured himself with it from a wound he had accidentally received from an arrow poisoned with the blood of the hydra. The English name Centaury has the same origin. The ancients named the plant Fel Terrae, or Gall of the Earth from its extreme bitterness. The old Engiish name of Felwort is equivalent in meaning to this, and is applied to all the plants of the Gentian family. It is also thought to be the 'Graveolentia Centaurea' of Virgil, to which Lucretius gives the more significant epithet of tristia, in reference to this same intense bitterness. As this bitterness had a healing and tonic effect attributed to it, we sometimes find the Centaury called Febrifuga and Feverwort. It is known popularly also as Christ's Ladder, and the name Centaury has become corrupted in Worcestershire to 'Centre of the Sun.'”