blossom

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English blosme, early also blostme,^[2][3] inherited from Old English blōstm, also blōstma and blōsma,^[4][5][6][3] from Proto-Germanic *blōstmô.^[1] It is cognate with Middle Dutch bloesem and modern Dutch bloesem, Middle Low German blōsem, West Frisian blossum and Old High German bluomo,^[4][5][3] and compare Old Norse blómstr (“a flower”), which Barnhart takes as a hint of metathesis in Old English.^[3][7] It is generally referred to the same base as bloom, of which it would be an extended form;^[4][7][5] Etymonline traces it to Proto-Indo-European *bhlow-, an extended form of Proto-Indo-European *bhel- (“to thrive, bloom”),^[8][9] and Wiktionary to Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₃- (“to bloom, to thrive”).^[1] Barnhart and Ayto note that Latin flōreō (“to bloom”) and flōs (“flower”), the source of flower, point to the same extended stem.^[3][10] The verb is blosmen, blōstmian (“to put forth blossoms”), from the noun.^[4][8][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

An individual flower: the Old English noun is recorded in the Blickling Homilies,^[4] and Barnhart dates it to probably about 725.^[3] The Middle English blosme appears by about 1200.^[8][3]

Semantic evolution

Already in Old English and early Middle English the word was used figuratively, of something of exceptional beauty or excellence or of the prime of life;^[8][2] the OED records an attribute compared to a blossom from about 1230, in Hali Meidenhad, and a stage of development like that of blossoming from before 1250, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[4] From before 1400 it was also the mass of flowers on a fruit tree, hence the phrase in blossom,^[4] and by about 1440 it could mean a lovely person full of promise.^[4] Johnson (1755) noted that blossoms were the flowers valued as a token of the fruit to come,^[11] and dictionaries still prefer it for the flowers of fruit-bearing plants.^[12][13] Etymonline and Weekley note that the native word has largely given way to bloom, from Old Norse, and flower, from French.^[8][14] The verb was used figuratively from 1377, in Langland,^[4][8] and later with into (1851) and out (1894).^[4] In mining a blossom was the decomposed outcrop of a vein or coal seam (1819).^[4] In East Anglia it was also the frothy state of cream in churning,^[15] and in slang it has meant a strait-laced person (1884, in Mark Twain) and, in Australia, the female genitals.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English blōstm, a flower.^[3]
• c. 900 – Old English verb blōstmian, to flower.^[3]
• c. 1230 – figurative, an attribute or product compared to a blossom.^[4]
• before 1250 – a stage of development like blossoming.^[4]
• 1377 – the verb in transferred and figurative use, in Langland's Piers Plowman.^[4][8]
• before 1400 – the mass of flowers on a fruit tree, and the phrase in blossom.^[4]
• c. 1440 – a lovely person full of promise.^[4]
• 1819 – mining, the decomposed outcrop of a vein or coal seam.^[4]
• 1851 – blossom into.^[4]
• 1894 – blossom out.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A flower of a plant, especially of one that bears edible fruit: the first blossoms on the pear tree.^[13][12][4]
2. The flowers of a plant as a mass, or the state or time of flowering, in the phrases in blossom and in full blossom.^[13][12][4]
3. A stage of growth like flowering; the prime of something.^[4][2]

Verb

1. Of a plant, to produce flowers; to bloom: The cherries blossomed late that spring.^[13][12][4]
2. To develop, flourish or come to a promising stage, often with into or out: Their friendship blossomed into a partnership.^[13][12][5]

Word family

• blossomy
• blossomless
• reblossom
• blueblossom
• unblossomed
• unblossoming
• outblossom
• apple blossom

Related words

• bloom
• blow
• flower
• flora
• blade

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
16. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com