calyx

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin calyx,^[2][3][4][5] from Ancient Greek κάλυξ (kálux, “outer covering of a fruit, flower or bud; shell, husk, pod”).^[2][4][6] The OED, Etymonline, Hoad, Collins and Weekley connect the Greek noun with καλύπτω (kalúptō, “to cover, hide”),^{[2][4][6][7][8]} and Etymonline goes on to Proto-Indo-European *kel- (“to cover, conceal”).^[4] Others relate it instead to cup words: Klein sets it in ablaut with κύλιξ (kúlix, “drinking cup”) and calls it cognate with Latin calix (“cup, goblet, drinking vessel”),^[9] Merriam-Webster Unabridged refers it to chalice,^[10] and Partridge makes it akin to these words, while allowing that the Greek and Latin may have different origins.^[11] Barnhart thinks it possibly cognate with a Sanskrit word for "bud", from an Indo-European root meaning "cup",^[3] but Beekes says that the Sanskrit word should probably be kept apart, and that both root and suffix of the Greek word look Pre-Greek.^[12] Whatever their origin, the Latin words for the husk and the cup fell together in form in Medieval Latin and in the Romance languages,^[2] and they are confused in other languages too, such as German Kelch, which has both senses.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The whorl of sepals that forms the outer envelope of a flower: 1693, in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.^[2][10][3] Etymonline dates it to the 1680s,^[4] and Dictionary.com to 1665–75.^[13]

Semantic evolution

Because of the confusion with Latin calix, modern scientific writers largely treat the two as one word: the calyx of a flower is commonly explained as a "flower-cup", and the spelling calyx is used for many cup-like organs that have nothing to do with a flower and are really compared to a cup.^[2] The OED therefore treats the anatomical calyx, recorded from 1828, as a variant spelling of calix, itself recorded from 1708.^[2] From 1851 the word was also used of parts of other organisms resembling a flower's calyx.^[2] Weekley still called the two "distinct" words, confused by writers on botany.^[8]

Timeline

• 1693 – in botany, the outer whorl of a flower.^[2][3] Etymonline dates it to the 1680s.^[4]
• 1828 – in anatomy, a cup-like cavity, as a variant spelling of calix.^[2]
• 1851 – similar parts of other organisms.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) The sepals of a flower taken together, forming its outer envelope and protecting the bud: The rose's green calyx folded back as it opened.^[10][7][2]
2. (anatomy) A cup-shaped cavity, especially one of the divisions of the kidney's renal pelvis.^[7][10][5]
3. (zoology) Any of various cup-shaped structures in animals, such as the body of a crinoid.^[10][2]

Word family

• epicalyx
• calycate

Related words

• calix
• chalice
• cylix
• apocalypse

Usage notes

The plural is calyxes or calyces.^[10][7] Hoad and Weekley warn that the word is confused with calix.^[6][8]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
12. ^ 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
13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House