Etymologically
Log in

Flora

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 24 October 2026 at 04:58. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈfɫoː.ra][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈflɔː.ra][1]

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

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