nosegay

C2+ Topic:Describing Qualities

US /ˈnoʊzɡeɪ/ UK /ˈnəʊzɡeɪ/ See IPA manual

noun

Meanings

1

noun
a small bunch of flowers, especially a fragrant one

She carried a nosegay of violets to the wedding.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a small bunch of flowers,... posy bouquet corsagetussie-mussiebunch

Word family

Related forms nose gay

Etymology

From Middle English nose ('nose') + gay ('ornament, gay thing'), thus literally 'a thing that adorns or pleases the nose'.

nosu Old English gai Old French

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities Word Formation & Derivatives

# nosegay

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** ˈnoʊzɡeɪ
**IPA (UK):** ˈnəʊzɡeɪ

## Meanings
1. a small bunch of flowers, especially a fragrant one

## Examples
- She carried a nosegay of violets to the wedding.

## Synonyms
- posy
- bouquet
- corsage
- tussie-mussie
- bunch

## Related Forms
- nose
- gay

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: nosu
- Root: gai

## Etymology
From Middle English nose ('nose') + gay ('ornament, gay thing'), thus literally 'a thing that adorns or pleases the nose'.

## AI Etymology
Nosegay comes from Middle English nose ('nose') + gay ('ornament, gay thing'), thus literally 'a thing that adorns or pleases the nose'. The etymological trail includes Old English nosu and Old French gai. As a noun, nosegay means a small bunch of flowers, especially a fragrant one. The same family is visible in related forms such as nose and gay. Morphologically, the word is built from the elements named in its history, so the modern form preserves a visible compound, prefix, or suffix structure.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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nosegay

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