Wiktionary

hollyhock

English

edit
 
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology

edit

From Middle English holihocke, holyhokke, holihoc, from holi (“holy”) + hocke, hokke, hoc (“mallow”) (from Old English hoc (“marsh mallow”). The modern hollyhock was probably unknown in England until the 15th century, so usage before then no doubt referred to some other mallow.

Apparently so-called for being brought from the Holy Land; compare an old name for it in Medieval Latin cauli Sancti Cuthberti (“St. Cuthbert's cole”).

Pronunciation

edit

Noun

edit

hollyhock (plural hollyhocks)

  1. Any of several flowering plants of the genus Alcea in the Malvaceae family.
    • 1842, [Katherine] Thomson, chapter X, in Widows and Widowers. A Romance of Real Life., volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, pages 227–228:
      No cottage in Coughton boasted taller hollyhocks, nor finer Michaelmas daisies in the autumn than Dame Magdalen’s almshouses; […]

Derived terms

edit

Translations

edit
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=hollyhock&oldid=79624877"