英语词汇flower的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

flower; flour. In Anglo-Saxon times the word for flower was blossom; this changed after the Normans conquered England in 1066, and their fleur became the English flower. However, all three words have the same common ancestor—the ancient Indo-European blo, which eventually yielded both blossom and flower. Flour, the finely ground meal of any grain, is just a spe- cialized use of the word flower. In fact, flower and flour were used interchangeably until the 19th century, as in Milton’s Par- adise Lost, where we find the line “O flours that never will in other climate grow.” In French fleur de farine is the flower or finest part of the grain meal. Still used today and one of the longest-lived modern-day slogans, the phrase say it with flow- ers was coined for the Society of American Florists in 1917 by plantsman Patrick F. O’Keefe (1872–1934). Cut flowers is an old term for flowers cut from the garden for bouquets or display. A visitor once asked George Bernard Shaw why he kept no vases of cut flowers. “I thought you were so fond of flowers,” he said. “So I am,” Shaw retorted. “I’m very fond of children too. But I don’t cut off their heads and stick them in pots all over the house.” According to tradition, Saint Elizabeth of Hungary gave so much food to the poor that her own household didn’t eat well. Her husband suspected this and when he saw her leaving the house one day with her apron full of something, he de- manded to know what she carried. “Only flowers, my lord,” Elizabeth said, and God saved her from her lie by changing the loaves of bread in her apron to flowers. See blossom.

词汇	flower
词源	flower; flour. In Anglo-Saxon times the word for flower was blossom; this changed after the Normans conquered England in 1066, and their fleur became the English flower. However, all three words have the same common ancestor—the ancient Indo-European blo, which eventually yielded both blossom and flower. Flour, the finely ground meal of any grain, is just a spe- cialized use of the word flower. In fact, flower and flour were used interchangeably until the 19th century, as in Milton’s Par- adise Lost, where we find the line “O flours that never will in other climate grow.” In French fleur de farine is the flower or finest part of the grain meal. Still used today and one of the longest-lived modern-day slogans, the phrase say it with flow- ers was coined for the Society of American Florists in 1917 by plantsman Patrick F. O’Keefe (1872–1934). Cut flowers is an old term for flowers cut from the garden for bouquets or display. A visitor once asked George Bernard Shaw why he kept no vases of cut flowers. “I thought you were so fond of flowers,” he said. “So I am,” Shaw retorted. “I’m very fond of children too. But I don’t cut off their heads and stick them in pots all over the house.” According to tradition, Saint Elizabeth of Hungary gave so much food to the poor that her own household didn’t eat well. Her husband suspected this and when he saw her leaving the house one day with her apron full of something, he de- manded to know what she carried. “Only flowers, my lord,” Elizabeth said, and God saved her from her lie by changing the loaves of bread in her apron to flowers. See blossom.
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