Florist

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈflɒɹɪst/

Definitions

1. A person who sells or arranges flowers professionally
2. One who operates a business specializing in fresh flowers or floral arrangements
3. An individual engaged in cultivating, selling, or designing flower displays

Etymology: The word "florist" is built from two parts that look Latin on the surface. The first, "flor-", comes from "floris", the genitive form of "flos", meaning "flower". Genitive forms are the possessive case, so the root is really "of a flower" in its grammatical shape, a detail that rarely shows up in the finished English word. The ending "-ist" is a suffix that marks a person who practises or deals in something. The word reached English by way of French, where "fleuriste" was formed on the same Latin base. English took the French form and adjusted it to fit its own spelling and pronunciation, so the Latin root arrived with a French coat of paint. Nothing in the word itself points to a single inventor or a dramatic turn of meaning. It has stayed quite faithful to its original sense: a person whose trade is flowers.

Synonyms: flower shop owner, flower seller