Plants & CreaturesGreek → English
Anthurium
/ænˈθjʊəriəm/noun
A tropical plant grown for its glossy coloured spathe and protruding spike of tiny flowers.
The Greek roots
ἄνθος
ánthos
flower, bloom
οὐρά
ourá
tail
Literally: “tail flower”
The story of the word
Heinrich Schott named the genus in 1829 for the spadix, the pale tail sticking out of the bloom. The waxy scarlet heart everyone calls the flower is a modified leaf; the actual flowers are the hundreds of beads on the tail. Anthos gives anthology, which in Greek was a gathering of flowers before it meant a gathering of poems.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
Same family
anthologychrysanthemumanther
In a sentence
A single anthurium sat on the reception desk, so glossy that visitors kept touching it to check it was real.