delphinium

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun any plant of the genus Delphinium having palmately divided leaves and showy spikes of variously colored spurred flowers; some contain extremely poisonous substances

From the genus name (translingual Delphinium), from Ancient Greek δελφῐ́νῐον (delphĭ́nĭon, “larkspur”).

There were flowers: delphiniums, sweet peas, bunches of lilac; and carnations, masses of carnations. — Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf
The family Delphinia numbers ten genera, and the dolphins I saw were akin to the genus Delphinorhynchus, remarkable for an extremely narrow muzzle four times as long as the cranium. — Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World, Jules Verne
Many herbs likewise have got their names of those things which they seem to have some resemblance to; as Hippuris, because it hath the likeness of a horse’s tail; Alopecuris, because it representeth in similitude the tail of a fox; Psyllion, from a flea which it resembleth; Delphinium, for that it is like a dolphin fish; Bugloss is so called because it is an herb like an ox’s tongue; Iris, so called because in its flowers it hath some resemblance of the rainbow; Myosota, because it is like the ear of a mouse; Coronopus, for that it is of the likeness of a crow’s foot. — Gargantua and Pantagruel, François Rabelais

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