Etymologically
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tulip

Etymology and origin of the English word tulip

History

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈtjuːlɪp/; /ˈtulɪp/ (US)[1]

Etymology

Earlier tulipa and tulipant,[2] reaching English in the 1570s by several routes:[3] sources point to New Latin tulipa,[4][5][2] French tulipe and its older form tulipan,[2][6][3] Dutch tulipa,[6] and Dutch or German tulpe.[3] All of these go back to Turkish tülbent (“turban; gauze, muslin”),[2][6][3][4][5] from Persian dulband “turban”;[6][3] the flower was named for its supposed resemblance to a turban.[2][6][3][5] The full form survives in Italian tulipano and Spanish tulipán,[3] and Random House suggests that New Latin tulipa is a back-formation from Italian tulipano, taken as an adjective.[5] In the Germanic languages the ending -an tended to drop, being taken for a suffix.[3] Compare turban.[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A bulbous plant of the genus Tulipa, introduced from Turkey into Western Europe in the 16th century.[7][2]

Semantic evolution

The earliest known tulip to flower in cultivation in Europe bloomed in 1559 in the garden of Johann Heinrich Herwart in Augsburg,[3] and the plant was popularized in Holland after 1587 by Clusius.[3] In English the word was soon used figuratively for a showy person or a much-admired thing (1647),[7] and later in slang, as in “my tulip”, “my fine fellow” (1847).[7] Its bell shape also gave names to a swell at the muzzle of a gun (1884)[7] and to the North American tulip tree (1705).[3]

Timeline

  • 1559 – the earliest known tulip flowering in cultivation in Europe, in Augsburg.[3]
  • 1578 – first recorded in English;[7][4][6] Random House dates it 1570–80.[5]
  • 1647 – a showy person or thing.[7]
  • 1705 – tulip tree.[3]
  • 1843 – tulip-wood.[3]
  • 1847 – slang my tulip, “my fine fellow”.[7]
  • 1884 – a bell-shaped swell at the muzzle of a gun.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. Any of a genus (Tulipa) of Eurasian bulbous plants of the lily family, grown for their large, showy, cup- or bell-shaped flowers.
  2. The flower or bulb of such a plant.

Word family

  • tuliplike
  • tulipomania
  • tulipwood
  • cottage tulip
  • tulip tree

Related words

  • turban

References

  1. [1] Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  3. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. [1] [2] [3] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  6. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  7. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
Cite this entry

“Tulip.” Etymologically, 7 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/tulip. Accessed 7 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on .