hyacinth

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a bulbous garden plant with a dense spike of fragrant, brightly colored flowers

   A purple hyacinth bloomed beside the path in early spring.

2. 2
   noun

   a reddish, orange, or brown variety of zircon used as a gemstone; a jacinth

   The antique brooch was set with a dark hyacinth surrounded by pearls.

From Middle English jacinth and Latin hyacinthus, from Greek hyakinthos, the name of a dark-blue flower and of the youth Hyacinthus in myth. The ultimate Mediterranean source is uncertain. The spelling was re-Latinized in the sixteenth century; the gemstone sense preserves the older jacinth form.

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