plumbago

Borrowed from Latin plumbāgō (“type of lead ore”), from plumbum (“lead”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /plʌmˈbeɪɡəʊ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /pləmˈbeɪɡoʊ/

plumbago (countable and uncountable, plural plumbagos or plumbagoes)

1. (botany) A plant of the genus Plumbago; leadwort. [from 17th c.]
2. (mineralogy, now chiefly historical) Graphite. [from 18th c.]

• graphite
• black lead

• David Barthelmy (1997–2025) “Plumbago”, in Webmineral Mineralogy Database.
• “plumbago”, in Mindat.org‎^[1], Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, 2000–2025.

Borrowed from Latin plumbāgō. See also plombagine.

• IPA^(key): /plœ̃.ba.ɡo/

• Audio:

  (file)

plumbago m (plural plumbagos)

1. (botany) plumbago

   Synonym: dentelaire

plumbum (“lead”) +‎ -āgō. The plant name is likely a calque of Ancient Greek μολύβδαινα (molúbdaina). (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?)

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [pɫʊmˈbaː.ɡoː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [plumˈbaː.ɡo]

plumbāgō f (genitive plumbāginis); third declension

1. graphite
2. the color of graphite
3. leadwort

Third-declension noun.

• English: plumbago
• French: plombagine, plumbago
• Italian: piombaggine
• Spanish: plumbagina, plumbagíneo

• “plumbago”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• plumbago in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.