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columbine

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Etymology and origin of the English word columbine

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈkɒləmˌbaɪn/[1]
  • US: /ˈkɑləmˌbaɪn/[1]

columbine1 flower

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1330 St Patrick's Purgatory, Auchinleck manuscript
Borrowed from
Old French columbine via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Latin columba
Etymology tree of columbine1
inherited borrowed derived
Latin columba
Latin columbīnus
Latin columbīna
English columbine
From the same root · columbine1
Latin columbus ← columba

Etymology

The word for the flower is inherited from Middle English columbine, also colombine,[2] borrowed from Old French columbine,[3][4][5][6] or directly borrowed from Medieval Latin columbīna,[3][7][8][9] probably short for a phrase meaning "dovelike plant".[4][5][10][11] The Medieval Latin word is the feminine of Latin columbīnus (“dovelike”),[8][9][12] formed from columba (“dove”) and the suffix -īnus.[9] The name comes from the likeness of the upturned flower to a cluster of five doves.[3][7][9][4][11] In Late Latin the same feminine had been used of vervain.[3][7] The Anglo-Norman word, recorded from the second half of the 13th century, meant both the columbine and vervain.[6] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Barnhart compare Ancient Greek κόλυμβος (kólumbos, “a diving bird, probably a grebe”),[9][7] and Barnhart traces both to Proto-Indo-European *kel-.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The garden plant Aquilegia: about 1330, in the Auchinleck manuscript of St Patrick's Purgatory, in a list of flowers beside the rose and the lily.[2] Barnhart dates the word to before 1310 and Etymonline to about 1300,[7][3] and the OED's first quotation is from the Harley Lyrics, before 1350, where a lady is "coynte ase columbine".[13][2]

Semantic evolution

In the 15th and 16th centuries the name was also given to vervain, Verbena officinalis, as the Late Latin word had been.[13][14][3] From 1459 to 1554 a columbine could be an ornament shaped like the flower, as in an inventory of Sir J. Fastolf's goods in the Paston Letters;[13][2] and in 1629 Parkinson called Thalictrum aquilegifolium "tufted colombine", which later became the book name feathered columbine.[13] Johnson (1755) described the plant, quoting Millar, as having leaves like the meadow rue and hanging flowers.[15] According to Green's Dictionary of Slang the flower, with its "hollow horns", served in the 16th century as an image of cuckoldry.[16] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also records columbine or columbine blue as the name of a purplish blue.[9]

Timeline

  • c. 1330 – the plant Aquilegia.[2] The OED's first quotation is from before 1350.[13]
  • c. 1450 – vervain (obsolete by 1597).[13][14]
  • 1459 – an ornament in the form of the flower (until 1554).[13][14]
  • 1629 – tufted colombine, later feathered columbine, the plant Thalictrum aquilegifolium.[13]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Any plant of the genus Aquilegia, with flowers of five spurred petals in purple, blue, yellow or red.[10][9][13]
  2. A moderate purplish blue; also columbine blue.[9]
  3. (obsolete, c. 1450–1597) Vervain.[13][6]

columbine2 dovelike

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1386 Chaucer, Merchant's Tale
Borrowed from
Old French columbin via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Latin columba

Etymology

The adjective meaning dovelike is inherited from Middle English columbine,[2][13] borrowed from Old French columbin (“dove; of a dove”), the Anglo-Norman form, recorded from the mid-12th century,[6][9] and Middle French colombin,[9][11][12] from Latin columbīnus (“of a dove or pigeon; dove-coloured”),[13][4][12] from columba (“dove”).[13][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Gentle or innocent as a dove: about 1386, in Chaucer's Merchant's Tale: "Com forth now, with thyne eyen columbyn!"[13][2] Chaucer used the word only this once.[17]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was figurative, the dove as a type of meekness and innocence, often with reference to Matthew 10:16;[13][2] Lydgate described seven maidens in 1432 as "most columbyne off chere".[2] The colour sense, like a pigeon's neck, followed about 1420, and a noun for that colour in 1606.[13][4][14] The plain sense "of or belonging to a dove or pigeon" is recorded only from 1656, in Blount's Glossographia.[13] The Shorter Oxford calls the adjective now rare.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 1386 – dovelike, meek or innocent, in Chaucer.[13][2]
  • c. 1420 – dove-coloured.[13][14]
  • 1606 – noun, short for columbine colour.[13][4]
  • 1656 – of or relating to a dove or pigeon.[13]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of, relating to, or like a dove or pigeon.[9][13][4]
  2. Gentle or innocent like a dove.[9][13][2]
  3. (rare) Dove-coloured.[13][4]

Noun

  1. (rare) Dove colour, a pinkish or purplish grey.[13][4][14]
  • columbarium
  • columbary
  • culver

Usage notes

Capitalised, Columbine is the name of the young servant girl of the Italian commedia dell'arte, who became the sweetheart of Harlequin in English pantomime.[10][13][9] It is from French Colombine or Italian Colombina, the feminine of a word for dovelike, and is recorded in English from before 1723, in D'Urfey,[13][11] while Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives 1719.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  7. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  11. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  12. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  14. ^ a b c d e f Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  16. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  17. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Columbine.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/columbine. Accessed 13 Nov. 2026.

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