- botany
- 1690s, from botanic. The -y is from astronomy, etc. Botany Bay so called by Capt. Cook on account of the great variety of plants found there.
- magnolia
- plant genus, 1748, from Latinized name of Pierre Magnol (1638-1715), Fr. physician and botanist, professor of botany at Montpellier.
- clone (n.)
- 1903, in botany, from Gk. klon "a twig." The verb is first recorded 1959. Extension to genetic duplication of human beings is from 1970.
- begonia
- 1751, from Fr. (1706), named by Plumier for Michel Bégon (1638-1710), French governor of Santo Domingo (Haiti) and patron of botany.
- theco-
- prefix used in botany and zoology, from combining form of Gk. theke "case, receptacle," from base of tithenai "to put, place" (see theme).
- bract
- in botany, "small leaf at the base of a flower," from Mod.L., from L. bractea, lit. "thin metal plate," of unknown origin. Related: Bracteal; bracteate.
- eucalyptus
- 1809, from Mod.L., coined 1788 by Fr. botanist Charles Louis L'héritier de Brutelle (1746-1800) from Gk. eu- "well" + kalyptos "covered," for the covering on the bud.
"A London thief ... lodged under the bark of the dwarf eucalyptus, and keeping sheep ... is not an uninteresting picture." [Sydney Smith, "Botany Bay," 1823]
- pachysandra
- 1813, from Mod.L. (1803), from Gk. packhys "thick" + aner (gen. andros) "man" (see anthropo-), used in botany to mean "having stamens."
- leaflet
- 1787 as a term in botany; 1867 as a term in printing and publication; dim. of leaf (q.v.) in the book sense.
"A newspaperman asked the British authorities for a copy of the leaflets distributed in Germany by British airplanes. According to the London Daily Herald, his request was refused with the following answer: "Copies are not given out, as they might fall into enemy hands." ["The Living Age" magazine, Sept. 1939-Feb. 1940]
- botanist
- 1680s, from botany + -ist.
- pungent
- 1590s, "sharp, poignant" (of pain or grief), from L. pungentem (nom. pungens), prp. of pungere "to prick, pierce, sting," related to pugnus "fist" (see pugnacious). Meaning "having powerful odor or taste" first recorded 1660s. Literal sense "sharp, pointed" (c.1600) is very rare in English, mostly limited to botany.
- proboscis
- 1609, "elephant's trunk," from L. proboscis (Pliny), from Gk. proboskis "elephant's trunk," lit. "means for taking food," from pro "forward" + boskein "to nourish, feed," from boskesthai "graze, be fed," from stem *bot- (cf. botane "grass, fodder;" see botany).
- -acea
- suffix denoting orders and classes in zoology, from L. -acea, neut. pl. of -aceus "belonging to, of the nature of" (enlarged from adj. suffix -ax, gen. -acis); neut. pl. because of a presumed animalia, a neuter plural noun. Thus, crustacea "shellfish" are *crustacea animalia "crusty animals." In botany, the suffix is -aceae, from the fem. pl. of -aceus, with reference to L. plantae, which is a fem. plural.
- cunt
- "female intercrural foramen," or, as some 18c. writers refer to it, "the monosyllable," M.E. cunte "female genitalia," akin to O.N. kunta, from P.Gmc. *kunton, of uncertain origin. Some suggest a link with L. cuneus "wedge," others to PIE base *geu- "hollow place," still others to PIE *gwen-, root of queen and Gk. gyne "woman." The form is similar to L. cunnus "female pudenda," which is likewise of disputed origin, perhaps lit. "gash, slit," from PIE *sker- "to cut," or lit. "sheath," from PIE *kut-no-, from base *(s)keu- "to conceal, hide." First known reference in Eng. is said to be c.1230 Oxford or London street name Gropecuntlane, presumably a haunt of prostitutes. Avoided in public speech since 15c.; considered obscene since 17c. Under "MONOSYLLABLE" Farmer lists 552 synonyms from English slang and literature before launching into another 5 pages of them in French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. [A sampling: Botany Bay, chum, coffee-shop, cookie, End of the Sentimental Journey, fancy bit, Fumbler's Hall, funniment, goatmilker, heaven, hell, Itching Jenny, jelly-bag, Low Countries, nature's tufted treasure, parenthesis, penwiper, prick-skinner, seminary, tickle-toby, undeniable, wonderful lamp, and aphrodisaical tennis court. Du. cognate de kont means "a bottom, an arse." Du. also has attractive poetic slang ways of expressing this part, such as liefdesgrot, lit. "cave of love," and vleesroos "rose of flesh." Alternative form cunny is attested from c.1720 but is certainly much earlier and forced a change in the pronunciation of coney (q.v.), but it was good for a pun while coney was still the common word for "rabbit": "A pox upon your Christian cockatrices! They cry, like poulterers' wives, 'No money, no coney.' " [Massinger, 1622]