jonquil

Etymology

It is borrowed from French jonquille,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} or, as the Oxford dictionaries also allow, borrowed from New Latin jonquilla.^[7][8][9] Hoad takes the early form, New Latin junquilia, from Italian giunchiglia;^[10] Merriam-Webster Unabridged derives it from French or Spanish.^[11] The French word is from Spanish junquillo,^{[2][3][4][11][8]} a diminutive of junco (“rush, reed”),^{[2][3][4][11][8]} from Latin iuncus (“reed, rush”).^[2][4][10] The plant is named for its rush-like leaves.^{[7][2][3][11][6]} Barnhart and Etymonline trace the Latin word to an older form, Etymonline's being Proto-Italic *joiniko-,^[3][2] and compare Middle Irish aín (“rushes”), Old Norse einir (“juniper”) and Swedish en (“juniper”).^[2][3][4] Partridge instead suggested a link with Latin iungō (“to join”).^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The species of narcissus with long rush-like leaves and fragrant flowers: first recorded in 1629, in J. Parkinson's Paradisi in Sole.^[7] Dictionary.com also dates it to 1620–30,^[13] but Barnhart and Merriam-Webster Unabridged give 1664, Barnhart in the spelling junquill,^[3][11] and Etymonline gives the 1660s.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From the flower the name passed to its pale yellow colour, recorded in 1791 in a translation of Berthollet, and here the OED takes it from French again.^[7][2] The adjective of that colour appears in the early 19th century.^[8] The colour in turn named a canary, recorded in 1865 and also shortened to jonque.^[7][2] In the florist trade the name has been used more loosely for any narcissus or daffodil with a yellow corona.^[11]

Timeline

• 1629 – a species of narcissus with rush-like leaves.^[7]
• 1791 – a pale yellow colour.^[7][2]
• early 19th century – adjective, pale yellow.^[8]
• 1865 – a canary of that colour.^[7][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A narcissus, Narcissus jonquilla, of southern Europe and northern Africa, growing from a bulb, with long narrow leaves and clusters of fragrant yellow or white flowers.^[11][14][7]
2. Any of various other small plants like the daffodil; in the florist trade, a narcissus with a yellow corona.^[14][11]
3. A pale yellow colour.^[7][8]

Adjective

1. Of a pale yellow colour.^[8]

Related words

• junket
• juniper
• junco

Usage notes

The OED notes that Walker gave the pronunciation junkwill, which the poets used down to Wordsworth, while Smart in 1836 had stress on the second syllable.^[7] The Shorter Oxford still lists the first vowel of junk before that of John,^[8] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives it as an occasional variant.^[11]

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
14. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins