asphodel

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a Mediterranean plant with tall spikes of white, pink, or yellow flowers, especially one of the genus Asphodelus

   White asphodel flowered across the dry hillside in spring.

2. 2
   noun

   in classical myth and later poetry, the flower associated with the meadows of the Greek underworld

   The poet imagined the dead wandering through fields of asphodel.

Simplified etymology

Asphodel entered English in the late Middle Ages through Latin asphodilus or asphodelus from Greek asphodelos, whose origin is unknown. Its name was later altered to affodil and applied to several plants, including the flower eventually called the daffodil.

A learned borrowing through Latin asphodelus from Greek asphodelos, the plant name. Its deeper origin is uncertain and may be Pre-Greek. Classical descriptions of the asphodel meadows of Hades gave the flower a lasting literary association with death and memory.

Topics

External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary