Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Xanthium

Xanthium , noun

[New Latin, from Greek xa`nqion a plant used for dyeing the hair yellow, said to be the Xanthium strumarium, from xanqo`s yellow.]

(Botany) A genus of composite plants in which the scales of the involucre are united so as to form a kind of bur; cocklebur; clotbur.