Plants & CreaturesGreek → English
Amaranth
/ˈæmərænθ/noun
A plant with dense crimson flower heads, several species grown as grain or as ornament.
The Greek roots
ἀ-
a-
not
μαραίνειν
maraínein
to wither, to fade
Literally: “unfading”
The story of the word
ἀμάραντος means unfading, and the plant earned it honestly: the flower heads hold their colour long after drying. The final -th is a mistake. English writers assimilated the ending to ἄνθος, flower, because that looked right on a plant name. Milton's amarant grows in heaven, a flower that literally cannot fade, and the grain now sold in health shops is a South American crop that inherited the label from botanists.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 1610s
Same family
amaranthinemarasmus
In a sentence
She grows amaranth for the seed heads and eats almost none of it.