dandelion

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A common wild plant with bright yellow flowers that turn into a ball of white seeds.

   The children blew the seeds off a dandelion in the garden.

2. 2
   adj

   Of a bright yellow color, like the dandelion flower.

   She painted the wall a cheerful dandelion yellow.

Simplified etymology

Dandelion entered English in the late Middle Ages from French dent-de-lion, literally “lion’s tooth.” The name refers to the plant’s toothed leaves.

From Middle English dentdelyon, from Old French dent de lion (“lion's tooth”), also in Latin dēns leōnis, referring to the jagged shape of the plant's leaves. The term is now rare in French (together with liondent, calque from Germanic), but compare Spanish diente de león, Portuguese dente-de-leão, Italian dente di leone, German Löwenzahn, Norwegian Bokmål løvetann, Welsh dant y llew, all descendants, calques, or loan translations of the Latin term.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary