Myth & LegendGreek → English
Daphne
/ˈdæfni/noun
A female given name, and a genus of small fragrant shrubs.
The Greek roots
δάφνη
dáphnē
laurel, bay tree
Literally: “laurel”
Follow a root:δάφνη1 word
The story of the word
Daphne was the nymph who prayed to be saved from Apollo and was turned into a laurel, which is why the god wears its leaves and why victors at the Pythian games were crowned with them. The Greek noun looks pre-Greek rather than inherited. The bay leaf in a stew is the same tree, and the shrub genus Daphne, named by Linnaeus, is not related to it botanically at all.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
In a sentence
Daphne keeps a bay tree by the door and picks from it all winter.