floral

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin flōrālis (“of Flora”), from Flōra, the goddess of flowers,^[2][3][4][5] whose name comes from flōs (“flower”);^[6][7] Etymonline also names French floral, recorded in the 16th century, as a source.^[6] For the sense "of flowers" the OED and the Shorter Oxford see a new formation on flōs itself,^[2][4] and the Oxford Dictionary of English derives the word from flōs and the English suffix -al.^[8] Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary trace flōs to the root Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to thrive, bloom”),^[6][7] and Skeat relates it to English blow and bloom.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

In ancient Rome, relating to or in honour of the goddess Flora (floral shows rendering the Latin Floralia): 1647, in Robert Stapleton's translation of Juvenal.^[2][4] Etymonline dates it to the 1640s,^[6] and Dictionary.com to 1640–50.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) still defined the word as relating to Flora or to flowers, quoting Matthew Prior's "floral play".^[11] The sense "of or relating to flowers", now the main one, is recorded from 1753, in the Supplement to Chambers's Cyclopædia;^[2][6][3] the Oxford Dictionary of English dates the word itself to the mid 18th century.^[8] "Relating to a flora", the plants of a region, followed in 1870,^[2][4] after flora had been used in that sense.^[6] A noun floral, a dancer at the Floralia, appears once, in Richard Lovelace (a1657);^[2] the modern noun, a fabric with a flower pattern, dates from 1897, in a Sears, Roebuck catalogue.^[2][3] Floral dance is a name for the Furry Dance of Helston in Cornwall, recorded from 1911.^[2][4]

Timeline

• 1647 – relating to the goddess Flora.^[2]
• a1657 – noun, a dancer at the Floralia; obsolete.^[2]
• 1753 – of or relating to flowers.^[2][3][6]
• 1870 – relating to a flora.^[2]
• 1897 – noun, a fabric with a floral design.^[2][3]
• 1911 – floral dance, the Furry Dance of Helston.^[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Of, relating to or made of flowers: a floral arrangement.
2. Decorated with flowers or a pattern of flowers: a floral dress.
3. (botany) Of or relating to a flora, the plants of a region or period.

Noun

1. A design, or a fabric or garment, with a pattern of flowers.

Word family

• florally
• extrafloral
• floral envelope

Related words

• flora
• flower
• flourish
• florid
• florist
• bloom

References

1. ^ a b 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.