pollen

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the fine powder produced by flowers that contains male reproductive cells

   Bees carried pollen from one flower to another.

2. 2
   noun

   fine powdery material, especially flour-like dust

   A yellow pollen settled on the windowsill after the storm.

3. 3
   verb

   to cover or dust with pollen

   The lilies pollened the tablecloth with orange grains.

Learned borrowing from Latin pollen, "fine flour." Linnaeus used it in botany for the fine reproductive grains produced in flower anthers, preserving the older image of flour-like powder.

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