larkspur

Etymology

It is a compound from English lark (“the songbird”) + spur.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Most dictionaries explain the name by the shape of the flower: Merriam-Webster and the OED by the spur-shaped calyx,^[4][7][2] Etymonline by the likeness of the calyx and petals to the bird's long straight hind claw,^[6] and the American Heritage Dictionary by the likeness of the nectar-bearing spur to that claw.^[8] Klein alone refers it to the shape of the leaves.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A plant of the genus Delphinium: 1578, in Lyte's translation of the Niewe Herball of Dodoens.^[2][4] Etymonline has the 1570s.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Another popular name of the same pattern, lark-heel, is recorded from the 1590s.^[6] Johnson (1755) only describes the flower, after Miller, and in 1773 glosses it with delphinium.^[10] The Shorter Oxford and the American Heritage Dictionary now apply the name to the annual plants of the genus Consolida,^[5][8] and the Shorter Oxford notes that it applies to Delphinium only with a specifying word,^[5] though Merriam-Webster and Collins still define it by Delphinium.^[4][11] In 1927 the name of the flower was first recorded for its blue colour.^[2]

Timeline

• 1578 – a plant of the genus Delphinium.^[2][4]
• 1927 – the blue colour of the flower.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An annual plant of the genus Consolida in the buttercup family, grown for its spikes of blue, pink or white spurred flowers.^[8][5]
2. A delphinium.^[8][4][11]
3. The dried seeds of a European larkspur, used in a tincture against lice.^[4]
4. A moderate greenish blue.^[4][2]

Related words

• lark
• spur

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
8. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins