Etymologically
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anemone

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /əˈnɛməni/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French anemone and directly from Latin anemone,[2][3] from Ancient Greek ἀνεμώνη (anemṓnē, “wind flower”),[4][2][3][5][6] literally “daughter of the wind”,[3][6] from Ancient Greek ἄνεμος (ánemos, “wind”) + -ώνη (-ṓnē, “feminine patronymic suffix”).[2][3][6] The French form was corrected in the 16th century from Old French anemoine.[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A plant of the buttercup family with showy flowers (1548 in Barnhart and Merriam-Webster, 1551 in the OED).[2][5][7]

Semantic evolution

According to Asa Gray, quoted by Etymonline, the plant was so called because the flower was thought to open only when the wind blows.[3] Klein suggested instead that the name may have come originally from Hebrew.[3] In zoology the word was applied from 1773 to the sea anemone,[7][3] probably as a shortening of that name, which is recorded by 1742.[3]

Timeline

  • 1545–55 – Random House's dating.[6]
  • 1548 – the plant (Barnhart, Merriam-Webster).[2][5]
  • 1742 – sea anemone.[3]
  • 1773 – the sea creature.[7][3]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. Any of a large genus of perennial herbs of the buttercup family, with lobed leaves and showy flowers whose colored sepals take the place of petals; also called windflower.
  2. A sea anemone.

Word family

  • Japanese anemone
  • rue anemone
  • wood anemone
  • clown anemone
  • sea anemone
  • anemone fish
  • animal
  • animus

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  7. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press