floridus

Forms

flōridus (feminine flōrida, neuter flōridum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin flōs (“flower”) + -idus, made after flōreō (“to bloom”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces flōs to Proto-Italic *flōs(-) (“flower”) and Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₃-ōs (“blossoming”), with cognates such as Old Irish bláth (“flower, bloom”) and Old High German bluowen (“to bloom”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan finds it first in Varro,^[3] who speaks of flowery and uncultivated mountains;^[2] Köbler dates it from Cicero.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It means full of flowers or producing them: Lucretius has flowery meadows, Ovid garlands of flowers and flowery Hybla.^[5] Cicero uses the neuter plural of flowery and varied sights.^[5] It is also bright in colour, as in Pliny the Elder and Apuleius.^[2][5] Of persons it is blooming with youth or beauty: Catullus has a blooming girl and the flowering age of youth, and Ovid's Galatea is more blooming than a meadow.^[5][2] Of speakers and style it is florid: Cicero calls Demetrius of Phalerum more flowery than Hyperides, and Quintilian names a third, flowery kind of style, in Greek ἀνθηρός.^[5] Stelten gives "flourishing, plentiful, flowery" for Church Latin.^[6] The English florid came through French.^[7]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro of flowery mountains.^[2][3]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of flowery meadows.^[5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a flowery style.^[5][4]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus of a blooming girl.^[2][5]
• 1640s – florid appears in English, from French.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Full of flowers, flowery; made of flowers.^[2][5][1]
2. Brightly coloured, bright.^[2][5]
3. In the bloom of youth or beauty, blooming.^[2][5]
4. (of style) Florid, colourful.^[2][5][1]
5. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Flourishing.^[6][1]

Word family

• flōridulus

Related words

• flōs
• flōreō
• English florid

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com