asphodel
English edit
Etymology edit
From Ancient Greek ἀσφόδελος (asphódelos). Doublet of daffodil.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
asphodel (usually uncountable, plural asphodels)
- Any of the flowering plants of the family Asphodelaceae, especially Asphodelus ramosus and Asphodelus albus; the flower of these plants.
- 1962, Simone de Beauvoir, translated by Peter Green, The Prime of Life, Cleveland, OH: The World Publishing Company, translation of La Force de l'âge, →OCLC, page 77:
- Sometimes I lost track of them and had to hunt round in a circle, thrusting through sharp-scented bushes, scratching myself on various plants which were still new to me: resinaceous rock-roses, juniper, ilex, yellow and white asphodel [translating asphodèles].
- (Greek mythology) The flower said to carpet Hades, and a favorite food of the dead.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
- Her hand he seis'd, and to a shadie bank,
Thick overhead with verdant roof imbowr'd
He led her nothing loath; Flours were the Couch,
Pansies, and Violets, and Asphodel,
And Hyacinth, Earths freshest softest lap.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
plant of the genus Asphodelus
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