Tetrapetalous

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Having four petals arranged around the flower's center
2. Characterized by the presence of four distinct petals
3. Possessing a floral structure composed of four petals

Etymology: "Tetrapetalous" is a plain botanical compound: "tetra-", from Greek "tetra" meaning "four", joined to "petalous", which describes flowers with petals. Put together, it describes a flower with four petals. The second element carries the older history. "Petalous" is formed from "petal", which comes from the New Latin "petalum", borrowed from the Greek "petalon" meaning "leaf". The Greek word is related to "petannynai", "to spread out", so a petal was originally understood as a spread-out leaf, and the botanical term has kept that sense of a leaf-like part of the bloom. Because the term is built from transparent Greek parts, its meaning is recoverable directly from its pieces, and it belongs to the family of descriptive words such as "monopetalous" and "polypetalous" that botanists use to classify flowers by petal count and arrangement.