Derivation (?) of Mimbulus Mimbletonia

[psychic_serpent]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "Jim Flanagan" 
<jflanagan1 at n...> wrote:
> There are no exact matches on the word stem "mimb-" in either 
Latin 
> or Greek.  Here are some theories on derivation of mimbulus 
> mimbletonia, in decreasing order of likelihood:

[snip]

The 'meaning' of the plant may have nothing to do with the 
derivation of the name, but with what it's been traditionally used 
for.  This is often the case with plants.  I went back on my list 
and found "opie's" information about this:
 
> I found this on an herbal remedy website "Mimbulus is the remedy 
> for known fears. In other words whenever you are frightened of 
> something or you are anxious about something, and you can say what 
> that something is, then Mimbulus is the remedy to take. Mimbulus 
> fears are everyday fears - fear of public speaking, of the dark, 
> of aggressive dogs, or of illness or pain" 
> 
> Mimbulus is a plant that wards off fear, sort of. That makes sense 
> because Neville's plant aggressively defends itself when it's 
> frightened. The Mimbletonia part is a more of a mystery. Mim is a 
> greek root that means "to imitate". Tonia means "worthy of praise".
> 
> So, put it all together and it's a plant that wards off fearful 
> things by imitating praiseworthy things. Maybe. I guess. We'd have 
> to hold JKR down and tickle it out of her if we wante to be sure.

I thought this was very interesting because I had previously 
invented a potion in a fic that made someone feel absolutely safe 
whether they had any rational reason to feel that way or not, 
leading a person to sometimes do some rather foolhardy things that 
looked like bravery but were really a kind of ignorance of whether 
the act was dangerous or not.  I didn't make up the plant name, 
which I got from a book on Gardener's Latin, and which was said to 
be used in concoctions the Native Americans in the South used for 
young men getting ready to go on their first hunts.  If you looked 
at the name of the plant and knew its derivation, it would have no 
apparent connection to this "bravery" potion.

--Barb