orchid (n.)

1845, introduced by John Lindley in the third edition of "School Botany," from Modern Latin Orchideæ (Linnaeus), the plant's family name, from Latin orchis, a kind of orchid, from Greek orkhis (genitive orkheos) "orchid," literally "testicle," from PIE *h(o)rghi-, the standard Indo-European word for "testicle" (source also of Avestan erezi, Armenian orjik' "testicles," Old Irish uirge, Hittite arki- "testicle," Lithuanian eržilas "stallion").

The plant so called because of the shape of its root; Greek orkhis also was the name of a kind of olive, also so called for its shape. Earlier in English in Latin form, orchis (1560s), and in Middle English it was ballockwort (c. 1300; see ballocks). The modern word is marred by an extraneous -d- in an attempt to extract the Latin stem. Related: Orchidaceous.

also from 1845

Entries linking to orchid

ballocks (n.)

"testicles," from Old English beallucas, plural diminutive, from Proto-Germanic *ball-, from PIE root *bhel- (2) "to blow, swell."

orb (n.)

mid-15c., "sphere, globe, something spherical or circular, orbit of a heavenly body," from Old French orbe "orb, globe" (13c.) and directly from Latin orbem (nominative orbis) "circle, disk, ring, hoop, orbit," probably related to orbita "wheel track, rut," a word of unknown and much-disputed origin. Watkins suggests a connection with the root of orchid. De Vaan suggests *horbi- "turning thing."

A three-dimensional extension of a word originally describing two-dimensional shapes. The ancient astronomical sense is in reference to the hollow "spheres" that carried each of the planets and the stars through their heavenly motions in the Ptolemaic system. Used poetically of the earth, sun, or moon from 1590s; used rhetorically of the eye from 1650s. As a verb from c. 1600.

Orb-weaver in reference to spiders that make webs formed of lines radiating from a central point (as distinguished from tube- or tunnel-weavers) is recorded from 1889.

orchidectomy (n.)

"a cutting out of one or both of the testicles," 1870, from Latinized form of Greek orkhis "testicle" (see orchid) + -ectomy "a cutting, surgical removal." Coined by medical men in an attempt to avoid the common word castration.

Trends of orchid

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/. Ngrams are probably unreliable.

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Johnny

Johnny-cocks, a colloquial name for the early purple orchid (Orchis mascula) is attested from 1883....

lady

Lady's slipper as a type of orchid is from 1590s....

flower

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

vanilla

1660s, "pod of the vanilla plant," from Spanish vainilla "vanilla plant," literally "little pod," diminutive of vaina "sheath," from Latin vagina "sheath of an ear of grain, hull of a plant" (see vagina). So called from the shape of the pods. European discovery 1521 by Hernando C

plant

Old English plante "young tree or shrub, herb newly planted, a shoot or strip recently sprouted from seed," from Latin planta "sprout, shoot, cutting" (source of Spanish planta, French plante), which is perhaps from an unattested verb *plantare "to drive in with the feet, push in

cosmos

c. 1200, "the universe, the world" (but not popular until 1848, when it was taken as the English equivalent to Humboldt's Kosmos in translations from German), from Latinized form of Greek kosmos "order, good order, orderly arrangement," a word with several main senses rooted in t

geometry

early 14c., also gemetrie, gemetry, from Old French geometrie (12c., Modern French géométrie), from Latin geometria, from Greek geometria "measurement of earth or land; geometry," from combining form of gē "earth, land" (see Gaia) + -metria "a measuring of" (see -metry). Old Engl

jukebox

also juke-box, "machine that automatically plays selected recorded music when a coin is inserted," 1939, earlier jook organ (1937), from jook joint "roadhouse, brothel" (1935), African-American vernacular, from juke, joog "wicked, disorderly," a word in Gullah (the creolized Engl

herald

"messenger, envoy," late 13c. (in Anglo-Latin); c. 1200 as a surname, from Anglo-French heraud, Old French heraut, hiraut (12c.), from Frankish *hariwald "commander of an army" or a similar Germanic source, from Proto-Germanic *harja "army" (from PIE root *koro- "war;" see harry)

sad

Old English sæd "sated, full, having had one's fill (of food, drink, fighting, etc.), weary of," from Proto-Germanic *sathaz (source also of Old Norse saðr, Middle Dutch sat, Dutch zad, Old High German sat, German satt, Gothic saþs "satiated, sated, full"), from PIE *seto-, from

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updated on September 15, 2019

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