asphodel

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin asphodelus, also asphodilus,^[2][3][4][5] from Ancient Greek ἀσφόδελος (asphódelos, “asphodel”), of unknown origin.^[2][6][7] Greek also had the variants σφόδελος (sphódelos) and σποδελός (spodelós), which Beekes takes as a sign of a word from the Pre-Greek substrate.^[8][6] The earlier English form, through Medieval Latin affodillus, was affodill, which became daffodil.^{[2][9][10][11]}

Earliest recorded meaning

A plant of the lily family with handsome flowers, native to southern Europe: 1597, in Gerard's Herball.^[2][5] The 1989 edition of the OED had a first record of 1578,^[12] and Etymonline, the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English date the word to the late 14th or 15th century,^[6][3][13] while Collins and Hoad give the 16th century.^[14][9]

Semantic evolution

In Greek myth the asphodel was the plant of the dead,^[6] and in Homer's Odyssey the heroes haunt a meadow overgrown with it, ἀσφοδελός (asphodelós, “grown with asphodel”).^[8][15] English poets made it an immortal flower covering the Elysian fields, first in Milton's Comus (1637; written 1634).^[2][6][15] From 1833 it was used attributively, sometimes meaning simply "Elysian".^[2] According to Hendrickson, the dead were thought to feed on asphodel roots, and the flowers were often planted on graves.^[16] From the 19th century the name was also given to other plants: bog asphodel (1834), Scotch asphodel (1863) and, in America, false asphodel (1889).^[2]

Timeline

• 1597 – a plant of the genus Asphodelus.^[2][5]
• 1599 – bulbous asphodel, the star of Bethlehem (obsolete).^[2]
• 1637 – an immortal flower of the Elysian fields, in Milton.^[2]
• 1833 – attributive, sometimes meaning Elysian.^[2]
• 1834 – bog asphodel.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of several Mediterranean plants of the genera Asphodelus and Asphodeline, of the lily family, with long upright spikes of white or yellow flowers.^[5][14][2]
2. Any of several similar plants, such as the bog asphodel.^[14][2]
3. In Greek legend and poetry, an immortal flower said to cover the Elysian Fields.^[14][2]

Word family

• bog asphodel

Related words

• daffodil
• affodill

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b Onions, C. T., ed. (1966), The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
16. ^ Hendrickson, Robert (2008), The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, 4th ed., New York: Facts on File