Plants & CreaturesGreek → English
Aspidistra
/ˌæspɪˈdɪstrə/noun
A tough shade-tolerant houseplant with broad dark strap-like leaves.
The Greek roots
ἀσπίς
aspís
shield
ἄστρον
ástron
star
Literally: “shield star”
The story of the word
The name points at the flower rather than the foliage: a dull purple thing sitting at soil level with a broad shield-shaped, star-lobed stigma. The second half is usually read as astron, though some derive the whole name from a diminutive of aspis alone. Victorian parlours adopted it because it survives gas fumes, dim rooms and neglect, and Orwell made it the emblem of shabby respectability in Keep the Aspidistra Flying.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
aspastronomyasteroiddisaster
In a sentence
The aspidistra had sat in the same dark corner since her grandmother's time and looked no worse for it.