This blog is for everyone who uses words.

The ordinary-sized words are for everyone, but the big ones are especially for children.



Friday, 11 February 2022

Word To Use Today: petal.

 I think it's quite interesting that the word petal comes from the Greek word petalon, which means leaf.

photo by Tiago Fioreze (these aren't, strictly-speaking, petals, but tepals. Still, never mind)

photo by kazuend

photo by Martin Cooper

I wonder if this is partly to do with the Ancient Greeks having such a different idea of colour from us? Their word khlōros, which we think of as green, had something of the meaning of growing thing.

Word To Use Today: petal. Petal comes from petalon (which also can mean a thin sheet of something) and petalon is basically the same word as petalos, which means spread out, or flat.

 

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