/ ˈhɒlihɒk; NAmE ˈhɑːlihɑːk/ noun
a tall garden plant with white, yellow, red or purple flowers growing up its stem
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WORD ORIGIN
Middle English : from holy + obsolete hock mallow , of unknown origin. It originally denoted the marsh mallow which has medicinal uses (hence, perhaps, the use of holy ); the current sense dates from the mid 16th cent.