Word for Wednesday: Orchid

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Our July Word for Wednesday theme is flowers. 

The word flower entered English around 1200 as ‘flour’ (with spelling variants including ‘flur’, ‘flor’, ‘floer’, ‘flor’, ‘floyer’, and ‘flowre’). It comes from the Old French ‘flor’, from the Latin ‘florem’. The word was used in reference to both blooms and grain until the late fourteenth century, after which the spellings ‘flower’ and ‘flour’ were used to differentiate between the two. 

So far we’ve looked at the words delphinium and lily. This week’s word is orchid.

Orchids come in a variety of colours and are known for their unusual and varied shapes. Their blooms last for several months. They are often kept as house plants. 

The word orchid was introduced to English in 1840 by John Lindley in the third edition of School Botany. The word comes from the Modern Latin ‘Orchideæ’, from the Latin ‘orchis’. ‘Orchis’ comes from the Greek ‘orkhis’ meaning ‘testicle’ and the plant is so named because of the shape of its roots.  
 


21 Jul 2021
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