orchid

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈɔː.kɪd/ (UK); /ˈɔɹ.kɪd/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin Orchideae, Linnaeus's name for the plant family,^[2][3][4][5] from orchid-, wrongly taken to be the stem of Latin orchis,^[3][4][5][6] from Ancient Greek ὄρχις (órkhis, “testicle; orchid”).^{[2][3][4][7][5]} The plant was so called from the shape of the paired tubers in many species.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The Greek word goes back to the standard Indo-European word for “testicle”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Any plant of the orchid family (1845), a word introduced by the botanist John Lindley.^[8][3][4][7]

Semantic evolution

The Latin form orchis had been used in English since the 1560s,^[4][6] and in Middle English the plant was called ballockwort.^[4][9] The -d- of orchid came from a mistaken attempt to extract the Latin stem.^[4][6] From 1923 the word also names a light purple colour.^[8][2][7]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – ballockwort.^[4]
• 1560s – orchis.^[4]
• 1845 – orchid, coined by Lindley.^[8][3][4]
• 1923 – a purplish colour.^[8]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Any plant of the large family Orchidaceae, terrestrial or epiphytic, with often showy three-petalled flowers whose middle petal is enlarged into a lip.
2. The flower of such a plant, especially one grown for ornament.
3. A light bluish-red to purple colour.

Adjective

1. Of a light purple colour.

Word family

• orchidlike
• orchidaceous
• orchidectomy
• orchidology
• moth orchid
• pansy orchid

Related words

• orchis

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Hendrickson, Robert (2008), The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, 4th ed., New York: Facts on File