Anemones

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Sea creatures that have a cylindrical body with tentacles arranged around a central mouth ; flowering plants with brightly colored petals often growing in temperate regions
2. Aquatic animals resembling a flower with tentacles used to catch prey ; plants that produce colorful blooms and are commonly found in gardens and wild areas
3. Organisms living in the sea characterized by radial symmetry and stinging tentacles ; herbaceous plants known for their vivid flowers and belonging to various genera

Etymology: The most striking thing about "anemones" is the name's proposed family tree. Greek speakers called the flower "anemōnē," which seems to have been built from "ánemos," meaning "wind," with a suffix that marks someone as a daughter of something. The flower was thus, in one reading, the "daughter of the wind," a name that fits a plant that sways and opens in breezy spring weather. Some scholars instead trace the word to a Phoenician or Semitic source, perhaps related to phrases meaning "plants of pleasantness" or "anemones" in Arabic and Hebrew, so the true origin is still debated. Either way, the word reached English through Latin "anemōnē," which kept the Greek form nearly intact. Its plural "anemones" follows the regular English pattern of adding "-s" to a noun ending in "-e." The same name later covered a sea creature, as zoologists saw the cnidarian's branching, flower-like tentacles as resembling the plant, so the same word now labels both the garden flower and the stinging animal.

Synonyms: flower, blossom