Herb. Also 7 campian, 7–8 champion. [This name appears first in Lobel (1576) and Lyte (1578) applied to the ‘Rose Campion’ or ‘Garden Campions’ (Lychnis, now Agrostemma, coronaria), and the ‘Wild Campions’—Red and White—(L. diurna, and vespertina). As the first was identical with the plant called by Dioscorides λυχνίς στεφανωματική, in Lat. lychnis corōnāria, where the second word in both means ‘of or fit for a crown, chaplet, or wreath,’ and the λυχνίς is said by Theophrastus to have been used for garlands, the Eng. name has been conjectured to be identical with CAMPION1 and = ‘champion.’
But if so, we should have looked for some such name as ‘Campions’ flower’ ‘Campions’ lychnis,’ and also that the name should have gone back to the 14th c. when the form ‘campion’ for ‘champion’ was in Eng. use. But of neither do we find any trace, and the conjecture must for the present be taken for what it is worth. The Dict. des Sciences du Nat. (1828), tome X, has ‘Compagnon Blanc, nom vulgaire Lychnis dioica.’ Héricher, Philol. de la Flore de Normandie et d’Angleterre, 18, has Red and White Campion, le rouge et le blanc Compagnon, but the age of these names and their relation to campion is very doubtful. Others have conjectured formation from campus field.]
The name of certain plants, species of the genus Lychnis: under the name Lyte included the cultivated Rose Campion, L. (Agrostemma Linn.) coronaria, and the wild Red and White Campions, L. diurna and L. vespertina. It is doubtful whether it was a popular name even of these. Later writers have extended it, with qualifications, to a number of allied species, as Campion of Constantinople, the Scarlet Lychnis (L. chalcedonica); Meadow Campion, the Ragged Robin, L. Flos Cuculi; Bladder Campion, Silene inflata; Corn C., the Corn Cockle, Agrostemma Githago; Moss Campion, Silene acaulis: these are only book-names.
1576. Lobel, Stirpium Adversaria nova (Antwerp), 142. Lychnis Coronaria, (Anglice) Rose Campion.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, II. x. 158. The wilde white Campion hath a rough white stemme.
1630. Drayton, Muses Elizium, v. 46.
| Sweet-Williams, Campions, Sops-in-wine | |
| One by another neatly: | |
| Thus haue I made this Wreath of mine, | |
| And finished it featly. |
1688. Ray, Hist. Plant., II. 992. Lychnis Coronaria, Garden Campions or Rose Campion.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 68/1. The double Champions are both red and white.
1859. Capern, Ball. & Songs, 128. The campion with its star of fire.
1863. Baring-Gould, Iceland, 102. Here and there bloomed a little moss campion.
1881. G. Allen, Vignettes fr. Nat., Red Campion & White, Known to … village children as red and white campion.
