different between fleur vs flower

English

Noun

fleur (plural fleurs)

1. fleur-de-lis

French

Etymology

From Old French flur, flour, flor, from Latin fl?rem, accusative of fl?s (“flower; the finest part of something”), from Proto-Italic *fl?s, from Proto-Indo-European *b?leh?- (“flower, blossom”), from *b?el- (“to bloom”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /flœ?/
• Rhymes: -œ?

Noun

fleur f (plural fleurs)

1. (botany) Flower; bloom; blossom; collectively, the reproductive organs and the envelope which surrounds them in angiosperms (also called "flowering plants").

   Je suis allé cueillir une fleur dans les champs.

   I went to pick a flower in the fields.

   Il m’a offert de magnifiques fleurs.

   He offered me magnificent flowers.

2. (metonymically) Flowering plant; angiosperm; the plant with flowers itself.

   Les orchidées sont des fleurs recherchées.

   Orchids are sought-after flowers.

3. (figuratively) A kind favor given by one person to another.

   Il m’a fait une fleur.

   He gave me a kind favor.

4. (figuratively) The best of something.

   Voici la fine fleur de la jeunesse française.

   Here's the cream of the crop of French youth.

   Mourir à la fleur de l’âge.

   to die in the prime of life

5. (figuratively) The virginity of a woman.
   • (Can we date this quote?), Jean de la Fontaine, Fables

     Il est bon de garder sa fleur ; mais pour l’avoir perdue il ne se faut pas pendre.

     It is good to guard one's blossom, but for having lost it one should not hang oneself.

6. (archaic, chemistry) Substances with a state of purity or extreme separation, produced by sublimation.

   Fleurs de soufre, de zinc, d’arsenic, d’antimoine.

   refinements of sulfur, zinc, arsenic, antimony

Synonyms

• (flowering plant): angiosperme
• (kind favor): aide, faveur, service
• (best of something): crème de la crème, élite, gratin, meilleur, nec plus ultra
• (virginity): vertu, virginité

Hypernyms

• (flower, bloom, blossom): arbre, inflorescence, capitule, ombelle, plante

Hyponyms

• (flower, bloom, blossom): bractée, carpelle, étamine, fleuron, pédoncule, pétale, pistil, sépale, tépale

Meronyms

• (flower, bloom, blossom): androcée, calice, corolle, gynécée, involucre, périgone, périanthe, réceptacle floral

Derived terms

See also

• effleurer
• efflorescence
• efflorescent
• fleuret
• fleureté
• floraison
• floral
• flore
• passiflore
• quadriflore
• uniflore

Further reading

• “fleur” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Middle English

Etymology

Borrowing from late Old French fleur.

Noun

fleur (plural fleurs)

1. Alternative form of flour

Walloon

Etymology

From Old French flor, flur, from Latin fl?s, fl?rem, from Proto-Indo-European *b?leh?- (“flower, blossom”).

Noun

fleur f (plural fleurs)

1. (botany) flower

English

Alternative forms

• flowre (obsolete)

Etymology 1

From Middle English flour, from Anglo-Norman flur, from Latin fl?rem, accusative of fl?s, from Proto-Indo-European *b?leh?- (“to thrive, bloom”). Doublet of flour.

Partially displaced Middle English blosme, blossem (“flower; blossom”) (see blossom).

Pronunciation

• (UK)
• (US)
• Rhymes: -a?.?(r), -a??(r)
• Homophone: flour (for people who pronounce flower as one syllable, or flour as two)

Noun

flower (plural flowers)

1. A colorful, conspicuous structure associated with angiosperms, frequently scented and attracting various insects, and which may or may not be used for sexual reproduction.
2. (botany) A reproductive structure in angiosperms (flowering plants), often conspicuously colourful and typically including sepals, petals, and either or both stamens and/or a pistil.
   • 1894, H. G. Wells, The Flowering of the Strange Orchid

     You know, Darwin studied their fertilisation, and showed that the whole structure of an ordinary orchid flower was contrived in order that moths might carry the pollen from plant to plant.

3. A plant that bears flowers, especially a plant that is small and lacks wood.

4. (usually with in) Of plants, a state of bearing blooms.

5. (euphemistic, hypocoristic) The vulva, especially the labia majora.
6. The best examples or representatives of a group.
   • 1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie

     The choice and flower of all things profitable the Psalms do more briefly contain.

   • 1808, Robert Southey, Chronicle of the Cid, from the Spanish

     the flower of the chivalry of all Spain

   • 1915, Katharine Tynan, The Golden Boy

     In times of peace, so clean and bright, / And with a new-washed morning face, / He walked Pall Mall, a goodly sight, / The finished flower of all the race.

7. The best state of things; the prime.
   • ?, Alfred Tennyson, Lady Clara Vere de Vere

     A simple maiden in her flower / Is worth a hundred coats of arms.

8. (obsolete) Flour.
   • 1730, John Arbuthnot, An Essay Concerning the Nature of Aliments

     The Flowers of Grains, mixed with Water, will make a sort of Glue.

9. (in the plural, chemistry, obsolete) A substance in the form of a powder, especially when condensed from sublimation.

10. A figure of speech; an ornament of style.
11. (printing) Ornamental type used chiefly for borders around pages, cards, etc.
    • 1841, William Savage, A Dictionary of the Art of Printing

      I pointed out to the late Mr. Catherwood , of the firm of Caslon and Catherwood , the inconvenience of both these modes of cutting flowers

12. (in the plural) Menstrual discharges.

Usage notes

In its most common sense as "a colorful conspicuous structure", the word flower includes many structures which are not anatomically flowers in the botanical sense. Sunflowers and daisies, for example, are structurally clusters of many small flowers that together appear to be a single flower (a capitulum, a form of pseudanthium), but these are considered to be flowers in the general sense. Likewise, the botanical definition of flower includes many structures that would not be considered a flower by the average person, such as the catkins of a willow tree or the downy flowers found atop a cattail stalk.

Synonyms

• (inflorescence that resembles a flower): head, pseudanthium
• (best examples): cream
• (best state of things): prime

Translations

Verb

flower (third-person singular simple present flowers, present participle flowering, simple past and past participle flowered)

1. (intransitive) To put forth blooms.

   This plant flowers in June.

2. (transitive) To decorate with pictures of flowers.
3. (intransitive) To reach a state of full development or achievement.

   • when flowr'd my youthful spring

   • 1940 Mahadev Desai, translator, Mahatma Gandhi, An Autobiography, Part III (IX) Simple Life, original published 1927-1929

     It only needed watering to take root, to flower and to fructify, and the watering came in due course.
4. (archaic, intransitive) To froth; to ferment gently, as new beer.
5. (intransitive) To come off as flowers by sublimation.

Synonyms

• (to put forth blooms): bloom, blossom
• (reach a state of achievement): flourish

Translations

Derived terms

Related terms

See also

• Appendix:Flowers
• Category:Flowers

Etymology 2

flow +? -er

Alternative forms

• flow-er

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?fl???/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?flo??/

Noun

flower (plural flowers)

1. (rare) Something that flows, such as a river.
   • 1886–1890, J. D. Rees, Narratives of Tours in India, page 340:

     Leaving the weavers’ village behind you, and crossing the sandy bed of the Vengavati or ‘Swift-flower,’ which, however, contained not a drop of water, you reach the ancient Jain temple.

   • 1888, John T. White, The Seventh Book of Cæsar’s Gallic War with a Vocabulary, page 224:

     Rh?d?nus, i, m. The Rhodanus (now Rhone); a river of Gaul [prob. a northern word, meaning “Swift-flower or Swift-passer”].

   • 1893, Arthur A. MacDonnell, A Sanskrit-English Dictionary, page 340:

     sará-yu, f. [swift flower: ?sri] N. of a river (in Oudh), in C. gnly. û.

   • 1959, Scottish Studies, volumes 3–4, page 92:

     one that flows with force and speed; the fast flower

   • 2019, Radio Times Crossword, 24 August:

     Bonnie partner with Scottish flower (5) [as a clue for CLYDE]

Usage notes

• The term is used with this meaning almost exclusively in cryptic crossword clues where it means river.

Anagrams

• Fowler, Wolfer, flowre, fowler, reflow, wolfer

Cebuano

Noun

flower

1. someone who is allowed to participate in games but cannot become it; usually a younger sibling of a player who may or may not fully grasp the mechanics of the game
2. (mahjong) a flower or season tile
3. (mahjong) the act of declaring and revealing a flower or season tile and in order drawing a replacement tile

Middle English

Noun

flower

1. Alternative form of flour