flower

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The colourful part of a plant that produces seeds, often with a pleasant smell.

   She picked a yellow flower from the garden.

2. 2
   noun

   A plant that is grown for its flowers, especially a small one.

   We transplanted the flowers into a larger pot.

3. 3
   noun

   The best or finest part of a group or time of life.

   She was cut down in the flower of her youth.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Flower came into Middle English through French from a Latin root also found in flora and flourish. In Middle English it was spelled flour; the spellings separated in the 17th century when flour became reserved for ground grain, a sense developed from “the flower” or finest part of something.

From Middle English flour, from Anglo-Norman flur, from Latin flōrem, accusative of flōs, from Proto-Italic *flōs, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₃- (“to thrive, bloom”). Doublet of fleur, flor, flour, bloom, and blossom. Partly displaced native Old English blostma (which is cognate), whence Modern English blossom.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary