# What is Witch Hazel?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-witch-hazel/277186>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 29, 2004, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-witch-hazel/277186 "2004-11-29T18:35:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2004, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-witch-hazel/277186/21 "2004-11-30T21:02:34Z")

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> [@bordelond](#):
>
> Oh … [these things](http://www.wildflowers-and-weeds.com/Plant_Families/Plantaginaceae.htm). OK, gotcha.
> 
> (But where are the big, banana-like fruits?)
> 
> Narrowleaf plantain plants were around here and there in the New Orleans suburbs where I grew up, but I wouldn’t have considered them particularly common on developed property (at least in my experience). I usually saw them in undeveloped lots.

:smack: I should have mentioned that. Same name, different plants.

Let this be a lesson to all would-be herbalists out there: this is why we must learn our Latin binomials! 😃

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**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2004, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-witch-hazel/277186/22 "2004-12-01T01:33:34Z")

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> [@WhyNot](#):
>
> 'Bout 20 minutes or so.

Or in other words, we are largely talking about regression to the mean.

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**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2004, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-witch-hazel/277186/23 "2004-12-01T04:56:24Z")

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It’s good for getting rid of zits. Thayer’s makes a non-alcohol witch hazel preparation, since alcohol isn’t all that good for your skin, although witch hazel is pretty good for your skin.

The word _wych_ referring to pliable branches is etymologically related to the word _weak_.

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**Author:** ![Doobieous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Doobieous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doobieous)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2004, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-witch-hazel/277186/24 "2004-12-01T07:50:57Z")

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> [@bordelond](#):
>
> ???
> 
> Don’t “plantain plants” grow large, banana-like fruit? Are there other plants that are in the plantain-plant family that don’t bear banana-like fruit?

plantain (1) “banana,” 1555, from Sp. plátano, plántano, probably from Carib platana “banana” (Arawak pratane), and altered by assoc. with Sp. plátano “plane tree,” from M.L. plantanus “plane tree,” itself altered (by association with L. planta “plant”) from L. platanus (see plane (4)). So called from the shape of its leaves. There is no similarity or relation between this plant and plantain

(2). plantain (2) Look up plantain at [Dictionary.com](http://Dictionary.com)  
“weed of the genus Plantago,” c.1265, from Anglo-Fr. plaunteyne, [O.Fr](http://O.Fr). plantain, from L. plantaginem (nom. plantago), the common weed, from planta “sole of the foot,” so called from its flat leaves.

For the cooking banana, this confusion probably results from taking the word for the banana from the French and confusing their pronunciation with that for the weedy annual called “Plantain” already in English.

As to the Native Americans calling plantains “White Man’s footsteps”, apparently these Natives didn’t live in California, because we have a few native species.

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