dandelion
UK /ˈdæn.dɪˌlaɪ.ən/ · US /ˈdæn.dəˌlaɪ.ən/ noun, adjective
Forms dandelions
- noun (countable) Any of the several species of plant in the genus Taraxacum, characterised by yellow flower heads and notched, broad-ended leaves, especially the common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale).
- noun (countable) The flower head or fruiting head of the dandelion plant.
- noun (uncountable) A yellow colour, like that of the flower.
- adjective Of a yellow colour, like that of the flower.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English dentdelyon, from Old French dent de lion (“lion's tooth”), also in Latin dēns leōnis, referring to the jagged shape of the plant's leaves. The term is now rare in French (together with liondent, calque from Germanic), but compare Spanish diente de león, Portuguese dente-de-leão, Italian dente di leone, German Löwenzahn, Norwegian Bokmål løvetann, Welsh dant y llew, all descendants, calques, or loan translations of the Latin term. First attested in the late 14th c.
Displaced various words, including native Old English ǣġwyrt, native Middle English houndes-tooth, and English tell-time and swine's snout; and mostly displaced English cankerwort, monk's head, and pissabed.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A well-known plant of the genus Taraxacum (T. officinale, formerly called T. Dens-leonis and Leontodos Taraxacum) bearing large, yellow, compound flowers, and deeply notched leaves.
Etymology [F. dent de lion lion's tooth, fr. L. dens tooth + leo lion. See Tooth, n., and Lion.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “dandelion”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details