Question #55262. Asked by dejavucub4.
Last updated Nov 15 2019.
The city is named after the chornobyl' grass, or mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris). The word itself is a combination of chornyi (÷îðíèé, black) and byllia (áèëëÿ, grass blades or stalks), hence it literally means black grass or black stalks.https://academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Chernobyl
Sometimes chornobyl is erroneously translated as simply "wormwood" (which most commonly refers to Artemisia absinthium), with consequent apocalyptic associations, probably originating from a New York Times article by Serge Schmemann, Chernobyl Fallout: Apocalyptic Tale, July 25, 1986. There, an unnamed "prominent Russian writer" was quoted as claiming the Ukrainian word for wormwood was chernobyl.
It fact, there are over 160 kinds of Artemisia, and the terminology is not generally accepted. Some sources refer to Artemisia vulgaris as "common wormwood", while other claim that "common wormwood" is Artemisia absinthium.
Wormwood is a different (but related) plant, Artemisia absinthium, Ïîëèí (Polyn). "Polyn" has no English equivalent, but corresponds to the botanical genus Artemisia. Botanically, mugwort is "Common Polyn" (Ukr. Ïîëèí çâè÷àéíèé); while wormwood is "Bitter Polyn" (Ukr. Ïîëèí ã³ðêèé).
Still more confusion comes from the fact that the word "wormwood" is used in the English text of the Apocalypsis, whose usage as the name of a plant not necessarily matches to that of the orginal.
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