Phyllis

The story of the word

In the myth, Phyllis waited for Demophon to sail back from Troy, gave up, and was turned into a bare almond tree that burst into leaf when he finally embraced it. Roman and then Elizabethan pastoral poets used the name for any country girl, which is how it reached English as a real name rather than a literary prop. The same φύλλον gives chlorophyll, green leaf, and the paper-thin phyllo pastry.

How it travelled

Ancient Greek → Latin → English