Flora

Forms

Flōra f (genitive Flōrae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin flōs (“flower”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *flōs-ā- (“goddess of flowers”) beside Proto-Italic *flōs (“flower”), and compares the formation to aurōra beside an earlier ⟨*ausōs⟩.^[2] Her cult was known among other Italic peoples: Oscan fluusaí, a dative, names the goddess, and the dative plural f<l>uusasiaís her festival.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler give Varro as its first author;^[2][3] he writes of the games of Flora, the Floralia.^[4][5] Lewis & Short also cite Lucretius and Cicero's speeches against Verres.^[4]

Semantic evolution

She was the goddess of flowers and of the flowering season.^[6][4] Her festival was held on 28 April, often with unbridled licence,^[4] and she had a temple near the Circus Maximus.^[5] Ovid tells her story in the Fasti, where she is the wife of Zephyrus.^[7][4] The Latin–Greek glossaries render the name as “flower-bearing” and “flowering”, and a later gloss calls her a goddess of the pagans, set over the flowering crops.^[8]

From the 1640s Flōra was used as the title of descriptive catalogues of the plants of a region, a use popularized by Linnaeus' Flōra Suēcica of 1745.^[9] English took the name for the goddess around 1500, and in 1777 used it for the plant life of a region or period.^[9]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro writes of the games of Flora.^[4][5][3]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid tells her story in the Fasti.^[4][5][3]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus mentions her temple near the Circus Maximus.^[5][3]
• c. 1500 – English borrows Flora as the name of the goddess.^[9]
• 1640s – Flōra is used as the title of plant catalogues.^[9]
• 1745 – Linnaeus publishes his Flōra Suēcica.^[9]
• 1777 – English flora is used for the plant life of a region.^[9]

Meanings

Proper noun

1. (Roman mythology) Flora, the goddess of flowers and of the flowering season.^[6][4][5][1]
2. (New Latin) A descriptive catalogue of the plants of a region, as a book title.^[9]

Word family

• Flōrālis
• Flōrius

Related words

• flōs
• English flora
• English floral

Usage notes

Medieval British sources have a common noun flora meaning “flour”, after Middle English flour;^[10][11] it is unrelated to the goddess's name except through flōs.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ Goetz, Georg (1888–1923), Corpus glossariorum Latinorum, Leipzig: Teubner; vols. VI–VII Thesaurus glossarum emendatarum, digital ed. CGLO, Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
11. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre