Etymology Dictionary

TANSY,  a tall plant, with small yellow flowers.  (F.,—Low Lat.,—Gk.)   M.E. tansaye; 'Hoc tansetum, tansaye,' Wright's Voc. i. 226, col. 2.   'Tansey, an herbe, tanasie,' Palsgrave.—O.F. tanasie, as in Palsgrave, later tanaisie, 'the herb tansie;' Cot.   Other forms are Ital. and Span. tanaceto; O.F. athanasie, Cot.; O. Ital. atanasia, 'the herb tansie,' Florio; Port. atanasia, athanasia; also Late Lat. tanacetum.   β. Of these, the late Lat. tanacetum (spelt tansetum above) is nothing but the Ital. form Latinised, and it means properly 'a bed of tansy,' as remarked in Prior, Popular Names of British Plants.   The O.F. athanasie, O. Ital. atanasia, and Port. atanasia, athanasia, answer to a Lat. form athanasia*, which is only the Gk. ἀθαναςία , immortality, in Latin spelling.   Prior says that athanasia was 'the name under which it was sold in the shops in Lyte's time.'   The plant is bitter and aromatic, and was (and is) used in medicine, whence, probably, the name.   Prior thinks there is a reference to 'Lucian's Dialogues of the Gods, no. iv, where Jupiter, speaking of Ganymede, says to Mercury, ἄπαγε αὐτὸν, ὦ Ἑρμῆ, καὶ πιόντα τῆς ἅθανασίας ἄγε οἰνοχοήσοντα ἡμῖν, take him away, and when he has drunk of immortality, bring him back as cupbearer to us:  the ἀθαναςία here has been misunderstood, like ἀμβροσία in other passages, for some special plant.'   Cf. O. Ital. atanato, 'the rose campion,' Florio; lit. 'the immortal.'   γ. The Gk. ἀθαναςία is allied to ἀθάνατος, immortal; from ἀ, negative prefix, and θανεῖν, 2 aor. of θνήσκειν, to die.