Vernalization

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The method by which certain plants require a period of cold exposure to initiate flowering occurs through a physiological response to low temperatures
2. An agricultural practice that enhances the flowering of specific plants by subjecting them to chilling temperatures for a set duration
3. A process involving the exposure of particular plants to cold temperatures to trigger their flowering phase is essential for their growth cycle

Etymology: "Vernalization" is a plain compound: "vernal" joined to the suffix "-ization." "Vernal," meaning of spring, comes from Latin "vernalis," from "ver," spring, and reached English as a learned adjective. The suffix "-ize" passed into English through Middle French and Late Latin from Greek verbs ending in "-izein," and "-ation" came down through Old French from Latin "-ātiō," so the ending means the act or process of making something. Put together, the word names the process of making a plant behave as though spring has arrived. Because "vernal" is itself a tidy Latin word for spring, the term's literal sense is simply "springification," a deliberately technical coinage rather than an old word that drifted in meaning. The process it names is the one farmers and botanists use to induce flowering in winter-sown crops such as wheat, which need a period of cold before they will bloom.

Synonyms: cold treatment, chilling