anemone

See also: Anemone, anémone, and anêmone

English

Etymology

From Latin anemōnē, from Ancient Greek ἀνεμώνη (anemṓnē), from ἄνεμος (ánemos, wind) + matronymic suffix -ώνη (-ṓnē, daughter of).[1]

Or from Phoenician *𐤍𐤏𐤌𐤍 (*nʿmn), akin to Arabic شَقَائِق اَلنُّعْمَان (šaqāʔiq an-nuʕmān, anemones) and Hebrew (Isaiah Scroll) נִטְעֵי נַעֲמָנִים (nit'ei na'amanim, plants of pleasantness).[2][3][4]

Pronunciation

  • (UK, US) IPA(key): /əˈnɛm.ə.ni/
    • Audio (US):(file)
    • Rhymes: -ɛməni
  • IPA(key): /əˈnɛn.ə.mi/, /əˈmɛn.ə.mi/ (proscribed but common)

Noun

anemone (plural anemones)

  1. Any plant of the genus Anemone, of the Ranunculaceae (or buttercup) family, such as the windflower.
    • 1920, Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., published 1921, page 23:
      Here (it was said) every year the youth Adonis was again wounded to death, and the river ran red with his blood, while the scarlet anemone bloomed among the cedars and walnuts.
    • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 5]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, [], →OCLC:
      Then walking slowly forward he read the letter again, murmuring here and there a word. Angry tulips with you darling manflower punish your cactus if you don’t please poor forgetmenot how I long violets to dear roses when we soon anemone meet all naughty nightstalk wife Martha’s perfume. Having read it all []
    • 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 115:
      Among herbs that have traditionally been considered to possess aphrodisiac virtue are, maidenhair, navelwort, anemone, wild poppy, valerian, cyclamen, male fern, pansy, periwinkle.
    • 2025 August 27, Vanessa Friedman, “The Ralph Lauren Look of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s Engagement Photos”, in The New York Times[2], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 August 2025:
      The engagement photos were set in a leafy bower festooned with pink and white roses, anemones, lilies and delphinium, like something straight out of an enchanted garden.
  2. A sea anemone.

Derived terms

Translations

References

  1. ^ "anemone". Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. 2nd ed. 1989.
  2. ^ Edward Yechezkel Kutscher, The Language and Linguistic Background of the Isiah Scroll (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1974), 380; first published in Hebrew, in Jerusalem, 1959.
  3. ^ Babcock, Philip, ed., Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, s.v. "anemone" (Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webser, 1993).
  4. ^ Onions, C[harles] T., Friedrichsen, G. W. S., and Burchfield, R[obert] W., editors (1966), “anemone”, in The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology[1], Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 36; reprinted 1994.

Anagrams

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin anemōnē, from Ancient Greek ἀνεμώνη (anemṓnē).

Pronunciation

  • Audio (Barcelona):(file)

Noun

anemone f (plural anemones)

  1. (botany) anemone
  2. (zoology) sea anemone
    Synonym: anemone de mar

Derived terms

Further reading

Italian

Etymology

From Latin anemōnē.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /aˈnɛ.mo.ne/
  • Rhymes: -ɛmone
  • Hyphenation: a‧nè‧mo‧ne

Noun

anemone m (plural anemoni)

  1. anemone

Derived terms

  • anemone di mare

See also

Further reading

  • anemone in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Latin

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἀνεμώνη (anemṓnē). Pliny says it was so called because the flowers opened only when the wind blew.

Pronunciation

Noun

anemōnē f (genitive anemōnēs); first declension

  1. windflower, anemone

Declension

First-declension noun (Greek-type).

singular plural
nominative anemōnē anemōnae
genitive anemōnēs anemōnārum
dative anemōnae anemōnīs
accusative anemōnēn anemōnās
ablative anemōnē anemōnīs
vocative anemōnē anemōnae

Descendants

  • English: anemone
  • French: anémone
  • Italian: anemone
  • Norman: anémône

References

  • anemone”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • anemone”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
  • anemone”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

Spanish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /aneˈmone/ [a.neˈmo.ne]
  • Rhymes: -one
  • Syllabification: a‧ne‧mo‧ne

Noun

anemone f (plural anemones)

  1. alternative form of anémona

Further reading