Unfloral

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Lacking the qualities of flowers, or not resembling floral arrangements, blossoms, or floral patterns in appearance or style
2. Not having a floral character, such as being free of flower motifs or lacking any resemblance to blossoms and blooms
3. Describing something that is not composed of, decorated with, or suggestive of flowers and their natural forms

Etymology: "Unfloral" is a plain formation: the prefix "un-", meaning "not", attached to the adjective "floral". "Floral" itself comes from the Latin "flos", "flor-", meaning "flower", which gave English a long line of botanical and decorative words. Because "floral" is the ordinary adjective for things made of or resembling flowers, "unfloral" simply reverses it, describing something free of flower forms, patterns or associations. The prefix is the real workhorse here. English attaches "un-" to adjectives freely, so a writer can coin a negative of almost any descriptive word on the spot, and "unfloral" follows that pattern rather than arriving through any separate history of its own. Its meaning is therefore exactly what its two parts promise, with no shift from the original sense.

Synonyms: nonfloral

Antonyms: floral