lovage
/ˈlʌvəd͡ʒ/noun
lovage is a noun meaning “A perennial Mediterranean herb, of species Levisticum officinale, with odor and flavor resembling celery” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled L-O-V-A-G-E and has 2 syllables, and it appears about once in every 16 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of lovage is lovages.
What does lovage mean?
noun
- 1
A perennial Mediterranean herb, of species Levisticum officinale, with odor and flavor resembling celery.
- 2
A liquor made from this herb.
- 3
Various species in the genus Ligusticum (generally with an adjective to differentiate them from Levisticum)
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce lovage?
- UK /ˈlʌvɪd͡ʒ/
- US /ˈlʌvəd͡ʒ/
Lovage has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-lovage.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of lovage
- lovages plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is lovage?
Lovage appears about once in every 16 million words in written English, the 121,279th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Lovage in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense a Mediterranean herb:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | livèche |
| German | Liebstöckel, Maggikraut |
| Portuguese | levístico |
| Spanish | levístico, apio de monte |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does lovage come from?
From Middle English loveache, a folk-etymological alteration, after love and ache (“parsley”), of Anglo-Norman luvasche and Old French luvache, loveche et al., and Middle French levesche, from Latin levisticum, probably alteration of Latin ligusticum, substantivization of the neuter of Ligusticus (“Ligurian”), ultimately from Ancient Greek Λιγυστικός (Ligustikós, “Ligurian”), from Λίγυς (Lígus, “Ligurian”). This replaced the Old English name lufestiċe (literally “love-stitch”), which was also derived from levisticum and altered by folk-etymology.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).