colchicum

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun chiefly fall-blooming perennial cormous herbs; sometimes placed in family Colchicaceae

Borrowed from translingual Colchicum, from Latin colchicum, from Ancient Greek κολχικόν (kolkhikón).

Only a few flowers of autumn were visible, such as the fleabane and red gillyflower, autumn colchicums in the ravine, and under the beeches bracken and tufts of northern heather. — Fairy Tales of the Slav Peasants and Herdsmen, Alexander Chodzko
Tasso went to his work with a sick heart in the Cascine, where the colchicum was all lilac among the meadow grass, and the ashes and elms were taking their first flush of the coming autumnal change. — Children's Literature: A Textbook of Sources for Teachers and Teacher-Training Classes, Charles Madison Curry
They have a remarkable power of eating the roots of the colchicum, or meadow saffron, which takes such powerful effect on other animals, and which they probably swallow for the sake of the larvæ or worms upon them. — Anecdotes of the Habits and Instinct of Animals, R., Mrs. Lee

genus Colchicum

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