Late 19th century; earliest use found in The New Sydenham Society's Lexicon of Medicine and the Allied Sciences. From scientific Latin phellandr- (in Phellandrium, former genus name (Linnaeus Systema Naturae) of a water dropwort (P. aquaticum; now called Oenanthe aquatica), from the seeds of which one of the compounds was first isolated; from classical Latin phellandrion (in Pliny), of uncertain origin; perhaps from Greek) + -ene, after Italian fellantrene.