flowery

Etymology

It is formed from English flower + -y,^[2][3][4][5] in Middle English flouri, also floury and flory, from flour (“flower”).^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Abounding in or covered with flowers: about 1374, in Chaucer's translation of Boethius.^[2] Etymonline dates it to the mid-14th century,^[4] and Dictionary.com to 1300–50.^[5] The Middle English Dictionary quotes Pearl (about 1380) on a "floury flaȝt", a flowery field, and Chaucer's Book of the Duchess on a "floury grene".^[6]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word meant full of flowers or blossoming, embroidered with flowers, and of a time or a story, flourishing or glorious.^[6] Chaucer used it four times.^[8] Hoccleve used it for "flourishing, vigorous" before 1420, a sense that soon died out.^[2] The figurative sense, of language "richly embellished" with flowers of speech, dates from about 1600;^[4] the OED's first example is Shakespeare's Measure for Measure.^[2] Milton used it of things decorated with figures of flowers (1667),^[2] after it had come to mean made of flowers or like flowers in 1656.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "full of flowers; adorned with flowers real or fictitious".^[9] From 1847 the Flowery Kingdom or Flowery Land, translating a Chinese name, meant China,^[2][3] while from 1925 flowery, short for the rhyming slang flowery dell, meant a prison cell.^[2][3] In northern English dialect it meant florid, of a fair, ruddy complexion, a sense recorded by Ray in 1691,^[2][10] and in Northumberland flowery docken was a name for the plant Good King Henry.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1374 – abounding in or covered with flowers, in Chaucer.^[2]
• before 1420 – flourishing, vigorous (obsolete).^[2]
• before 1616 – of language, full of fine words, florid, in Shakespeare.^[2][4]
• 1656 – made of flowers or like flowers.^[2]
• 1667 – decorated with floral designs, in Milton.^[2]
• 1691 – in northern dialect, of a florid, fair complexion.^[2][10]
• 1847 – Flowery Kingdom, Flowery Land: China.^[2]
• 1925 – rhyming slang for a prison cell.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Full of or covered with flowers: a flowery hillside in June.^[11][7][2]
2. Decorated with flowers or floral patterns: a flowery summer dress.^[11][2]
3. Like a flower, or suggesting flowers, especially in smell or taste: a flowery perfume.^[11][7][2]
4. Of language or style: elaborate and ornate; florid: His flowery tribute embarrassed the guest of honour.^[11][7][2]

Word family

• floweriness
• flowerily
• unflowery

Related words

• flower
• flour
• florid
• flourish

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 o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c 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)
7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c 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)
11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins