What does "butterbur" mean?

Any of several Eurasian herbs, of the genus Petasites, having dense clusters of often purple flowers.

Butterbur

Common synonyms include: bog rhubarb, butterdock, giant butterbur, giant butterbur, petasites hybridus, petasites vulgaris.

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
Any of several Eurasian herbs, of the genus Petasites, having dense clusters of often purple flowers.
2
small Eurasian herb having broad leaves and lilac-pink rayless flowers; found in moist areas wordnet

"How do you prepare butterbur, again?"

From butter + bur: its large leaves were once used to wrap butter.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.