... has no word for: blossom

This is the first in a series of …has no word for… which will be posted at 06.00 Central European Time on Tuesdays. for an explanation of the title, click here

* * * * *

- See more at: http://lavengro.typepad.com/peter_harvey_linguist/#sthash.6xrzFk8n.dpuf

This is the first in a series of …has no word for… which will be posted at 06.00 Central European Time on Tuesdays. for an explanation of the title, click here

* * * * *

- See more at: http://lavengro.typepad.com/peter_harvey_linguist/#sthash.6xrzFk8n.dpuf

These posts are published at 06.00 CET on Tuesdays. For an explanation of the title and content, click here.

This is the first in a series of …has no word for… which will be posted at 06.00 Central European Time on Tuesdays. for an explanation of the title, click here

* * * * *

- See more at: http://lavengro.typepad.com/peter_harvey_linguist/#sthash.6xrzFk8n.dpuf

Blossom is the special name for flowers on a tree, especially a fruit tree. Dr Johnson defined it in his dictionary as:

The flower that grows on any plant, previous to the seed or fruit. We generally call those flowers blossoms, which are not much regarded in themselves, but as a token of some following production.

There is no special word for this in Spanish. A cherry tree in blossom would be just un cerezo en flor. However, orange and lemon blossom have a special name, azahar.

For blossom as a verb the Gran Diccionario Oxford has:

1 (flower) «tree» florecer*, dar* flor
2 (flourish) «enterprise/arts» florecer*; «person/relationship» alcanzar* su plenitud; to blossom into something: our friendship blossomed into love nuestra amistad se transformó en amor; Helen has blossomed (out) into a delightful young woman Helen se ha convertido en una chica encantadora

Florecer is the equivalent of the English flourish but for the metaphorical examples we have alcanzar, transformarse and convertirse, which are respectively reach, be transformed and be converted although the last two verbs correspond to become, of which I will have more to say on a future occasion.

Image of Cherry blossoms at the Tokyo Imperial Palace: Wikipedia.

Comments

[John Cowan]

I don't think that AmE natively makes this distinction. m-w.com recognizes it, but AHD5 simply says 'flower or cluster of flowers', which agrees with my own usage. Still, it is a rather high-register word, and we may pick up the sense '(fruit) tree flower' from BrE literature.

Then there's (Margaret) Blossom Dearie, the jazz performer; amazingly, that was her real name. I saw her perform in New York once.