Plants & CreaturesGreek → English
Calyx
/ˈkeɪlɪks/noun
The ring of sepals enclosing a flower bud and remaining at the base of the open flower.
The Greek roots
κάλυξ
kályx
husk, pod, flower cover
Literally: “the covering husk”
Follow a root:κάλυξ1 word
The story of the word
Greek κάλυξ named the shell or husk around a seed, and botanists took it in the 1680s for the outer whorl that wraps a bud before it opens. It is regularly confused with κύλιξ, the shallow Athenian drinking cup, a different word entirely. Most dictionaries connect κάλυξ to καλύπτω, to cover, which would make it cousin to apocalypse, an uncovering, though not every specialist accepts the link.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 1680s
Same family
apocalypseeucalyptus
In a sentence
Strip the calyx off the strawberry before you weigh the fruit.