| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| dandelion |
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| SYLLABICATION: | dan·de·li·on |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  d n dl-   n |
| NOUN: | 1. A Eurasian plant (Taraxacum officinale) of the composite family having many-rayed yellow flower heads and deeply notched basal leaves. Widely naturalized as a weed in North America, it is used in salads and to make wine. 2. Any of several similar or related plants. 3. A brilliant to vivid yellow. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English dent-de-lioun, from Old French dentdelion, from Medieval Latin d ns le nis, lion's tooth (from its sharply indented leaves) : Latin dns, dent-, tooth; see dent- in Appendix I + Latin lenis, genitive of le, lion; see lion. | | WORD HISTORY: | Dent-de-lioun, the Middle English form of dandelion, makes it easy to see that our word is a borrowing of Old French dentdelion, literally, “tooth of the lion,” referring to the sharply indented leaves of the plant. Modern French dent-de-lion, unlike Modern English dandelion, reveals to anyone who knows French what the components of the word are. The English spelling reflects the pronunciation of the Old French word at the time it was borrowed into English. The t in dentdelion probably disappeared early in Old French, having been absorbed into the related sound of the d. The earliest recorded instance of the word occurs in an herbal written in 1373, but we find an instance of dandelion used in a proper name (Willelmus Dawndelyon) in a document dated 1363.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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