flower
pronunciation
How to pronounce flower in British English:
UK [ˈflaʊə(r)]
How to pronounce flower in American English:
US [ˈflaʊər]
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- Noun:
- a plant cultivated for its blooms or blossoms
- reproductive organ of angiosperm plants especially one having showy or colorful parts
- the period of greatest prosperity or productivity
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- Verb:
- produce or yield flowers
Word Origin
- flower
- flower: [13] The Old English word for ‘flower’ was blōstm, which is ultimately related to flower. Both come from Indo-European *bhlō-, which probably originally meant ‘swell’, and also gave English bloom, blade, and the now archaic blow ‘come into flower’. Its Latin descendant was flōs, whose stem form flōr- passed via Old French flour and Anglo-Norman flur into English, where it gradually replaced blossom as the main word for ‘flower’. Close English relatives include floral, florid [17] (from Latin flōridus), florin, florist [17] (an English coinage), flour, and flourish.=> blade, bloom, blow, floral, florid, flour, flourish
- flower (n.)
- c. 1200, flour, also flur, flor, floer, floyer, flowre, "the blossom of a plant; a flowering plant," from Old French flor "flower, blossom; heyday, prime; fine flour; elite; innocence, virginity" (12c., Modern French fleur), from Latin florem (nominative flos) "flower" (source of Italian fiore, Spanish flor; compare flora). From late 14c. in English as "blossoming time," also, figuratively, "prime of life, height of one's glory or prosperity, state of anything that may be likened to the flowering state of a plant." As "the best, the most excellent; the best of its class or kind; embodiment of an ideal," early 13c. (of persons, mid-13c. of things); for example flour of milk "cream" (early 14c.); especially "wheat meal after bran and other coarse elements have been removed, the best part of wheat" (mid-13c.). Modern spelling and full differentiation from flour (n.) is from late 14c. In the "blossom of a plant" sense it ousted its Old English cognate blostm (see blossom (n.)). Also used from Middle English as a symbol of transitoriness (early 14c.); "a beautiful woman" (c. 1300); "virginity" (early 14c.). Flower-box is from 1818. Flower-arrangement is from 1873. Flower child "gentle hippie" is from 1967.
- flower (v.)
- c. 1200, "be vigorous, prosper, thrive," from flower (n.). Of a plant or bud, "to blossom," c. 1300. Meaning "adorn or cover with flowers" is from 1570s. Related: Flowered; flowering.
Example
- 1. My old hero was a hothouse flower .
- 2. If you 're like most people you have a favorite flower .
- 3. Pluck this little flower and take it , delay not !
- 4. Airlines and kenyan flower producers are two obvious current examples .
- 5. Amaryllis bulbs have become a major component of the worldwide flower industry .