marguerite

Etymology

It is borrowed from French marguerite,^[2][3][4][5] which was first the name of the common daisy and then of other plants with similar flowers, already of the ox-eye daisy in 15th-century Middle French.^[2] The French word comes from Old French margarite (“daisy, pearl”),^[4][3][5] from Latin margarīta (“pearl”),^[4][3][6] from Ancient Greek μαργαρίτης (margarī́tēs, “pearl”),^[3][6][2] formed from μάργαρον (márgaron, “pearl”).^[7][8] The further origin of the Greek word is unknown;^[2] Barnhart traces it to Middle Persian marvārīt,^[3] while Weekley thought it probably of Eastern origin.^[9] Etymonline, quoting the OED, says that French etymologists derive the flower name directly from the sense "pearl", not from the personal name,^[10] whereas the Shorter Oxford, the Oxford Dictionary of English and Hoad call it the French form of the name Margaret.^[11][12][7] The same French word had been borrowed earlier as margarite, a pearl.^[2] In Middle English, margaret was used for the daisy from the early 15th century.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The common daisy: 1605, in P. Erondelle's French Garden.^[2] Merriam-Webster has the same date,^[5] but Barnhart, Etymonline and Dictionary.com date the word to the 1860s, Barnhart to 1866, in Lindley and Moore's Treasury of Botany.^[3][10][13]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, the common daisy, was rare and is now obsolete.^[2][11] From 1847 the word was used of other plants with daisy-like flowers, especially the ox-eye daisy and the cultivated Paris daisy;^[2] Collins gives the cultivated Chrysanthemum frutescens as its first sense.^[8] In 1882 it was applied to a southern African plant with blue daisy-like flowers.^[2] Merriam-Webster also records a frosted biscuit topped with a meringue mixture under this name.^[5]

Timeline

• 1605 – the common daisy (obsolete by 1886).^[2]
• 1847 – various plants with daisy-like flowers, especially the ox-eye daisy.^[2]
• 1866 – the common European daisy, in Lindley and Moore's Treasury of Botany.^[3][10]
• 1882 – a southern African plant with blue daisy-like flowers.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cultivated plant, the Paris daisy (Chrysanthemum frutescens), with white or pale yellow rays around a yellow centre.^[8][5][2]
2. Any of various related plants with daisy-like flowers, especially the ox-eye daisy.^[8][2][5]
3. A southern African plant (Felicia amelloides) with blue daisy-like flowers.^[2]
4. (obsolete, 1605–1886) The common daisy.^[2][11]

Related words

• margarine
• Margaret
• margarite

References

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