From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishgentiangen‧tian /ˈdʒenʃən/ noun [countable] HBPa small plant with blue or purple flowers that grows in mountain areas
Examples from the Corpus
gentian• Among the plants are meadow clary, silver centaury and early gentian.• Beds planted with summer filling of tiger lilies, carnations, sweet peas, poppies, marigolds, gentians and fuchsias.• He then unfolded and mounted his own, circular, of gentian violet gently banded with the lovely Dior gold.• Convenient and effective dyes for introducing into water flows include potassium permanganate, gentian violet, and methyl blue.• We picked gentians and edelweiss in Kashmir and hibiscus and bougainvillaea in our own garden.• There was also some gentian violet and Eusol.• For some reason every species is blue-violet: lupine, blue-eyed grass, thistle, gentian.Origin gentian (1300-1400) Latin gentiana, perhaps from Gentius king of ancient Illyria, in Southern Europe, who is said to have discovered the use of the plant as a medicine 