Plants & CreaturesGreek → English
Antirrhinum
/ˌæntɪˈraɪnəm/noun
The snapdragon, a garden plant whose two-lipped flower springs open when pinched at the sides.
The Greek roots
ἀντί
antí
like, against
ῥίς
rhís
nose, snout
Literally: “like a snout”
The story of the word
English looks at the mouth and calls it snapdragon; the Greek name looked at the nose. Ancient herbals already used the word for this plant, Linnaeus kept it, and it has been the botanical name ever since. The same ῥίς gives rhinoceros, nose-horn, and rhinitis, the running nose of a cold.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
Same family
rhinocerosrhinitisantibioticantithesis
In a sentence
The antirrhinums self-seeded along the wall and came back darker.
Children squeeze antirrhinum flowers to make them open and shut.