Etymology of the botanical name “shepherd’s purse” in English and Latin

Abstract

Etymology is known to play the important role in comprehension of history of the origin of a word, its functions in linguistics. It is worth focusing on the origin of the Latin botanical name of a plant Capsella bursa pastoris. This plant is known by the English name shepherd’s purse (literal translation from Latin). The choice of research is determined by topicality of etymological studies. In addition, the plant Capsella bursa pastoris \ shepherd’s purse is widely used in medicine for heart and blood circulatory diseases or abnormal conditions (low blood pressure, nervous heart dysfunctions, headache, blood in the urine etc.). A number of scientists has analized Capsella bursa pastoris in linguistics (K. Blynov, N. Borysova) and medicine (H. R. Roberts, J. Warren and J. Provan), which emphasizes the fact of importance of the present research.