hyacinth

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈhaɪ̯əsɪnθ/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin hyacinthus (“a precious stone; a flowering plant”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} partly through Middle French hyacinthe,^[6] from Ancient Greek ὑάκινθος (huákinthos, “a purple or deep-red flower; a precious stone”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} probably from a non-Indo-European Mediterranean language.^[4] It is a re-Greeked form of the older jacinth.^[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A blue precious stone (1553 in Barnhart and Merriam-Webster);^[3][5] the plant is recorded from the 1550s in Etymonline and 1578 in the OED.^[4][7][3] The older form jacinth is recorded as the name of a gem about 1200.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

In ancient Greece the word named a blue gem, perhaps the sapphire, and a purple or deep red flower that cannot be identified with certainty; the gladiolus, iris and larkspur have been suggested.^[4][5][8] The flower was said to have sprung from the blood of Hyacinthus, a youth loved by Apollo and accidentally killed by him, and its petals were said to bear the letters AI, a Greek cry of grief.^[4][9][2] From the 1570s English applied the name to the modern genus Hyacinthus.^[4][7] In mineralogy it is a reddish-orange variety of zircon,^[7][2][8] and from 1891 it names a purplish-blue colour.^[7][2]

Timeline

• about 1200 – jacinth, a precious stone.^[3]
• 1553 – hyacinth, a precious stone.^[3][5]
• 1578 – the flowering plant.^[7][3]
• 1891 – a purplish-blue colour.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A bulbous Mediterranean plant, Hyacinthus orientalis, of the lily family, grown for its cluster of fragrant, bell-shaped flowers, or any of several similar plants, such as the grape hyacinth.
2. A plant of Greek legend said to have sprung from the blood of Hyacinthus, variously identified as the iris, gladiolus or larkspur.
3. A reddish-orange variety of zircon, used as a gem; also a gem of the ancients, perhaps the sapphire.
4. A deep purplish blue.

Word family

• hyacinthine
• wild hyacinth

Related words

• jacinth

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
9. ^ Hendrickson, Robert (2008), The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, 4th ed., New York: Facts on File