blossom | Word of the Day

May 08, 2019 blossom [blos-uhm] verb noun 1. the flower of a plant, especially of one producing an edible fruit. 2. to flourish; develop: a writer of commercial jingles who blossomed out into an important composer. Visual Word of the Day Watch the Visual Word of the Day word-trends Celebrating 20 Years Of Word Of The Day! word-trends What Are The Differences Between These Emoji Faces? WORD OF THE DAY blossom continued... QUOTES ... the beauty of their island only blossomed the further through time they moved away from it. -- Roxane Gay, An Untamed State, 2014 ORIGIN Blossom in both the noun and the verb senses dates back to Old English. The Old English verb blōstmian "to bloom, blossom, effloresce" is a derivative of the noun blōstm, blōstma, blōsma "blossom, flower." The English words blossom, bloom, and blow ("a yield or display of blossoms") are all Germanic derivatives of the Proto-Indo-European root bhel-, bhlē-, bhlō- (and other variants) "to thrive, bloom." In Latin the root appears in flōs (inflectional stem flōr-) "flower" (which via Old French yields English flower, flour, and flourish). English florescent comes straight from Latin flōrescent-, the inflectional stem of flōrescēns, the present participle of flōrescere "to come into bloom." Other English derivatives from Latin include floral and folium "leaf," which becomes, again through Old French, English foil. Greek has the noun phýllon "leaf," whose most common English derivative is probably chlorophyll. OTHERS ARE READING 1 Celebrating 20 Years Of Word Of The Day! To celebrate this vigesimal birthday, we took a stroll through the Word of the Day archives to see what words were featured on notable dates and reflect on some of the memorable moments and trends of the last two decades. 2 Blond vs. Blonde: What's The Difference? You probably know blond as a hair color. But wait, haven't you seen the word blond spelled with an E too: blonde? Why?! 3 What's Happening With The Word "Unicorn"? What do Scotland, Silicon Valley, LGBTQ pride, and Jesus Christ all have in common? Unicorns. Yes, unicorns. 4 How Do You Use The Word "Myriad" In A Sentence? From college admissions to carbon emissions, it seems seems society these days is facing a myriad of challenges ... or is it myriad challenges? As if we don't have enough to deal with ... 5 What Are The Differences Between These Emoji Faces? For all the emotional support they give us, it's not always clear what all these emoji faces are meant to show. That's why we've rounded up some of them. You'll laugh, you'll cry … or, at least, the emoji will. © 2018 Dictionary.com, LLC. ABOUT CONTACT You are subscribed to the Word of the Day as: matzom229@gmail.com Subscriber since: September 06, 2017 Unsubscribe Dictionary.com, LLC. 555 12th Street Suite 500 Oakland CA 94607 Manage your subscription Terms & Privacy