词汇 | bougainvillaea |
词源 | bougainvillaea. The largest island in the Solomon group, two Pacific straits, and a brilliantly flowering South American vine are all named after the French navigator and adventurer Louis- Antoine de Bougainville (1729–1811). Bougainville command- ed a French expedition around the world in 1766–69, “discov- ering” the Solomon Islands and Tahiti. Naturalists in his party named the woody climbing vine family, of which there are about a dozen known species, Bougainvillaea in his honor. Bougainville’s descriptions of the natives he encountered on his voyages helped popularize Rousseau’s theories on the morality of man in his natural state, especially as concerns sexual free- dom. He fought for America during the Revolution, and in his later years Napoleon I made him a senator, count of the empire, and member of the Legion of Honor. The plant named after him is often cultivated in greenhouses, can be raised outdoors in the southern parts of the United States, and is regarded as the handsomest of tropical vines. |
随便看 |
英语词源词典收录了13259条英语词源词条,基本涵盖了全部常用英语词汇的起源、历史,是研究英语词汇或通过词源学英语的必备工具。