Etymologically
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flower

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /flaʊə/, /ˈflaʊ.ə/, US /ˈflaʊ.ɚ/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English flur, flour, borrowed from Anglo-Norman flur, Old French flor, flour,[2][3][4] from Latin flōs (“flower”), genitive flōris,[2][3] from Proto-Indo-European *bhel- (“to thrive, bloom”), the source also of bloom and blossom.[2][5][3] It is the same word as flour.[6][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The blossom of a plant, or a flowering plant: about 1200 in Etymonline, before 1200 in the Ancrene Riwle according to Barnhart, before 1225 in the OED.[2][3][7]

Semantic evolution

In the sense of a blossom it ousted its Old English cognate blōstm, the source of blossom.[2] The best or most excellent of anything is from the early 13th century,[2] which led to the best part of ground wheat, which became flour.[2][6] The spelling flour was limited to ground grain by the late 17th century,[8][6] though Barnhart says the spellings were not fully kept apart until the 1830s.[3] In Middle English the word was also a symbol of transitoriness, a beautiful woman (about 1300) and virginity.[2] The verb, to prosper, is from about 1200, and of a plant, to blossom, from about 1300.[2] Flower child, a gentle hippie, is from 1967.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 1200 – a blossom.[2][3]
  • early 13th century – the best of anything.[2]
  • c. 1300 – verb, to blossom.[2]
  • 1369 – flowery.[3]
  • 1967 – flower child.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The blossom of a plant, often brightly coloured, that produces seeds.
  2. A plant grown for its blossoms.
  3. (botany) The reproductive structure of a flowering plant, with stamens and pistils.
  4. The best or finest part of something: the flower of the nation's youth.
  5. The time of greatest vigour; prime.

Verb

  1. To produce flowers; to bloom.
  2. To develop fully; to flourish.

Word family

  • flowerer
  • flowerless
  • flowered
  • flowerful
  • flowerlike
  • flowerpot
  • flowery
  • passionflower
  • fleur
  • flora
  • floret
  • florid
  • florist
  • floristics
  • inflorescence
  • flour
  • bloom
  • blossom
  • flourish
  • floral

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press