anemone








noun

  1. any of various plants belonging to the genus Anemone, of the buttercup family, having petallike sepals and including several wild species with white flowers as well as others cultivated for their showy flowers in a variety of colors.
  2. sea anemone.

noun

  1. any ranunculaceous woodland plant of the genus Anemone of N temperate regions, such as the white-flowered A. nemorosa (wood anemone or windflower). Some cultivated anemones have lilac, pale blue, pink, purple, or red flowersSee also pasqueflower Compare sea anemone
n.

flowering plant genus, 1550s, from Middle French anemone (16c.) and directly from Latin anemone, from Greek anemone “wind flower,” literally “daughter of the wind,” from anemos “wind” (cognate with Latin anima; see animus) + -one feminine patronymic suffix. According to Asa Gray, so called because it was thought to open only when the wind blows. Klein suggests the flower name perhaps originally is from Hebrew (cf. na’aman, in nit’e na’amanim, literally “plants of pleasantness,” in Is. xvii:10, from na’em “was pleasant”). Applied to a type of sea creature (sea anemone) from 1773.

  1. See sea anemone.
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