Definition of: gentian

(jen′shən) noun
1. Any of a large genus (Gentiana) of European and American flowering herbs, as the yellow gentian of Europe (G. lutea), the fringed gentian of America (G. crinita), with blue, conspicuously fringed solitary flowers, and the closed or bottle gentian (G. andrewsi), with purple-blue, non-opening flowers.
2. The root of the yellow gentian, having tonic properties. [<L gentiana, appar. after Gentius, an Illyrian king]