Word of the Day

: February 4, 2010

vulnerary

adjective VUL-nuh-rair-ee

What It Means

: used for or useful in healing wounds

vulnerary in Context

Aloe vera is a vulnerary plant whose extract is widely used to soothe and heal burns.

Did You Know?

In Latin, "vulnus" means "wound." You might think, then, that the English adjective "vulnerary" would mean "wounding" or "causing a wound" -- and, indeed, "vulnerary" has been used that way, along with two obsolete adjectives, "vulnerative" and "vulnific." But for the lasting and current use of "vulnerary," we took our cue from the Roman scholar Pliny the Elder. In his Natural History, he used the Latin adjective "vulnerarius" to describe a plaster, or dressing, for healing wounds. And that's fine -- the suffix "-ary" merely indicates that there is a connection, which, in this case, is to wounds. (As you may have already suspected, "vulnerable" is related; it comes from the Latin verb "vulnerare," which means "to wound.")