flora

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin Flōra (“the Roman goddess of flowers”),^[2][3][4][5] from flōs (“flower”) (genitive flōris),^[3][2][6][7] which is also the source of flower.^[8][5] The scientific sense was taken from New Latin flora.^[6][9][10] Etymonline traces the Latin noun to Proto-Indo-European *bhle- (“to blossom, flourish”), an extended form of Proto-Indo-European *bhel- (“to thrive, bloom”), and compares Middle Irish blath, Welsh blawd (“blossom, flower”) and Old English blōwan (“to flower, bloom”).^[3] Barnhart relates it to bloom.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Roman goddess of flowers: the OED's first record is in William Dunbar's “Goldyn Targe” (1508),^[2] and Etymonline dates the sense to about 1500.^[3] In poetry the name also became the personification of nature's power to bring forth flowers.^[2][11]

Semantic evolution

In the 17th century the goddess's name began to be used in the titles of botanical books,^[8][12][4] for example John Ray's “Flora, seu de florum cultura”;^[8] Etymonline dates such titles from the 1640s,^[3] and Barnhart cites Simon Paulli's “Flora Danica” of 1647.^[6] Linnaeus made the usage popular in the natural sciences with his “Flora Suecica” (1745).^[6][3][12] In English a flora was a descriptive catalogue of the plants of an area from 1777, in John Lightfoot's “Flora Scotica”,^[2][9] and since 1778, in a letter of Gilbert White's, the word meant the plant life of a region or period itself,^[2] a sense that Etymonline and Barnhart date to 1777.^[3][6] Ayto notes that it came to be used like its animal counterpart fauna.^[8][5] From 1874 it was also used of the plants of a type of environment,^[2] and it was later extended to the bacteria and fungi of a place or of the body, as in intestinal flora.^[9][10] In Cornwall, Flora day at Helston was a popular-etymology name for the 8 May festival called Furry Day,^[13][2] recorded from 1790.^[2]

Timeline

• 1508 – the Roman goddess of flowers, in Dunbar.^[2]
• 1647 – “Flora Danica”, an early botanical title.^[6]
• 1745 – Linnaeus's “Flora Suecica” popularizes the term.^[6][3]
• 1777 – a descriptive catalogue of the plants of an area.^[2][9]
• 1778 – the plant life of a region or period.^[2]
• 1790 – Flora day, Cornish name for Furry Day.^[2]
• 1874 – the plants of a particular type of environment.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. All the plants of a particular region, period or environment, often contrasted with fauna: The valley's flora includes several rare orchids.
2. A book or list describing the plants of an area, often with a key for identifying them.
3. The bacteria or fungi living in a particular place, especially in the body, as the intestinal flora.
4. (Flora) The Roman goddess of flowers; in poetry, the personification of nature's flowering.

Word family

• floristic
• mycoflora
• subflora

Related words

• flower
• floral
• florid
• florist
• flourish
• bloom
• fauna

Usage notes

The plural is floras or, less often, florae.^[10][9][11]

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ 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)