Plants & CreaturesGreek → English
Dicotyledon
/ˌdaɪkɒtɪˈliːdən/noun
A flowering plant whose seed contains two embryonic leaves.
The Greek roots
δι-
di-
two, twice
κοτυληδών
kotylēdṓn
cup-shaped hollow
Literally: “two seed cups”
The story of the word
Κοτυληδών meant a cup-shaped hollow, and κοτύλη was a small drinking cup; Greek doctors used the word for the sockets in the placenta. Botanists borrowed it for the seed leaf that feeds a plant embryo before the first true leaves open. Split a bean in half and you are looking at its two cotyledons; grasses, palms and lilies get only one.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific Latin → English
- First recorded
- 18th century
Same family
cotyledonmonocotyledondilemmadiphthong
In a sentence
Oaks, roses and beans are all dicotyledons, which is why their leaves have branching veins.