The names of all flowers mean something special. Names of flowers usually don’t happen by accident—though there might be a funny story behind some different types of flowers—but different kinds of flowers mean different things. Here are meanings behind of some of those names of flowers.
Roses
This perennial comes in over 100 species of flowers. The symbol of the rose has impressed the hearts of humanity for millennia. The Latin word rosa gives the basis for the current name; however, this name passed through Oscan, colonial Greek, Aeolic, Aramaic, Assyrian, and Old Iranian before becoming rosa. Chronologically, the word began as war, then ward, warda, vard, wurtinnu, wurrda, wrodon, rhodon, and, finally, rosa. When Juliet asks, “What’s in a name?”, she’s right in one sense: “rose” has always signified only the flower and nothing else. However, the name “rose” has taken some work to reach our day.
Lilies
The names of different lilies come from many sources. The scientific name of lilies, Lilium, is Latin and derives from Greek leirion, a type of lily generally identified as the Madonna lily. The English name of this lily comes from its inclusion in Medieval paintings of the Virgin Mary. The names of other lilies often pertain to their location. For example, Lilium columbianum, the Columbia Lily or Tiger Lily, is named “Columbia,” a term often indicative of America, because it is native to western North America. “Tiger Lily” is the name of a character in Peter Pan, showing that names of flowers are everywhere
Daisies
Daisy is a name that applies to several species of flowers (and a cartoon duck). This name does not easily limit the taxonomy, though; the name liberally includes an entire family of flowers, named Asteraceae, which incorporates the genera of most chrysanthemums. The actual name “daisy” originated as a contraction of “day’s-eye,” having to do generally with the color of the flower (as well as the fact that some will close at night and open at morning). The earliest reference of the name found by the Oxford English Dictionary dates c. 1000 AD. Daisy is a name that has been around for a long time.
Chrysanthemums
Chrysanthemums, like many flowers, have a Latin name. The Latin name chrysanthemum comes from a Greek name literally meaning corn-flower or corn-bloom. The name became Corn Marigold, designating specifically a particular bright yellow flower. Eventually Chrysanthemum replaced Corn-Marigold as the name for the flower, and “chrysanthemum” has now been applied not just to the Corn Marigold species, but as the name for the entire genus. (Incidentally, the name chamomile has a simliar derivation.) A modern use of the name chrysanthemum that of a type of firework that produces an explosion like its namesake in appearance
Orchids
The number of species named or related to orchids number about four times as many species of mammals—these names abound! According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest use of “orchid” was in 1843; however, these plants went by the name orchis as early as 1559. Orchid and orchis are names borrowed directly from Latin; however, Latin borrowed the name from a Greek word meaning “testicle.” This had reference the shape of the tubers, which are frequently paired. This gave rise to the name “dogstones” for one species of British orchid, Testiculus canus, once again receiving a name due to the shape
by flower-dictionary
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