camellia

See also: Camellia

English

Camellia japonica

Etymology

Borrowed from translingual Camellia, named after Moravian botanist Joseph Kamel (‘Camellus’) (1661–1706). The Czech surname Kamel is a variant of Kamil.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kəˈmiːli.ə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /kəˈmɛli.ə/

Noun

camellia (plural camellias)

1. Any plant of the genus Camellia, shrubs and small trees native to Asia; Camellia japonica is the most popular as a garden plant; Camellia sinensis is the tea plant.
   • 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 22:

     Palms towered majestically over the heads of the lower shrubs, and camellias, stephanotis, and many other semi-tropical flowers were growing luxuriantly in the open air.

   • 1960 July 11, Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Philadelphia, Pa.; New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC:

     Plucking an occasional camellia, getting a squirt of hot milk from Miss Maudie Atkinson’s cow on a summer day, helping ourselves to someone’s scuppernongs was part of our ethical culture, but money was different.

   • 2011, Roberto Piazza, Soft Matter: The stuff that dreams are made of, page 130:

     I already hinted at the problem of sea eutrophication (where excess nutrients cause algae to flourish) due to the phosphates that used to be added to washing powder, and, surely, it is not pleasant for plants to find underfoot (or, better, "underroot") those surfactants we use daily at home (please, never pour your dishwater on the roots of a magnificent camellia, even if it is blooming in the garden of a next-door neighbor you cannot stand).

Derived terms

• deciduous camellia
• oil-seed camellia
• tea oil camellia
• Yunnan camellia

Translations

plant

• Arabic: كَامِيلِيَا f (kāmīliyā), كَامِيلِيَة f (kāmīliya)
• Armenian: կամելիա (hy) (kamelia)
• Bulgarian: каме́лия f (kamélija)
• Catalan: camèlia f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 茶花 (zh) (cháhuā), 山茶 (zh) (shānchá), 山茶花 (zh) (shāncháhuā)

• Czech: kamélie f
• Danish: kamelia c
• Esperanto: kamelio
• Faroese: kamelia f
• Finnish: kamelia (fi)
• French: camélia (fr) m
• Georgian: კამელია (ḳamelia)
• German: Kamelie (de) f
• Greek: καμέλια (el) f (kamélia)
• Hungarian: kamélia (hu)
• Hunsrik: Kamelje f
• Italian: camelia (it) f
• Japanese: 椿 (ja) (つばき, tsubaki)
• Korean: 동백나무 (ko) (dongbaengnamu)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kamelia m

  Nynorsk: kamelia m

• Persian: چای زینتی
• Polish: kamelia (pl) f
• Portuguese: camélia (pt) f
• Romanian: camelie (ro) f
• Russian: каме́лия (ru) f (kamélija)
• Spanish: camelia f
• Swedish: kamelia (sv) c
• Turkish: Japon gülü (tr), kamelya (tr)
• Ukrainian: каме́лія (uk) f (kamélija)
• Vietnamese: hoa chè, hoa trà

Anagrams

• Micaella