flos

Latin

flōrēs lūteī (yellow flowers)

Etymology

(deprecated template usage)

A root noun interpreted as an s-stem noun, from Proto-Italic *flōs, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₃-s (“flower, blossom”), from *bʰleh₃- (“to bloom”). Cognates include Ancient Greek φύλλον (phúllon), Gothic 𐌱𐌻𐍉𐌼𐌰 (blōma) and Old English blōstm, blæd (“leaf”) (English blossom, blade).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /floːs/, [fɫ̪oːs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /flos/, [flɔs]

• Audio (Classical):

  (file)

Noun

flōs m (genitive flōris); third declension

1. flower, blossom
2. (figuratively) the best kind or part of something
3. (figuratively) the prime; best state of things
4. (figuratively) an ornament or embellishment

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	flōs	flōrēs
Genitive	flōris	flōrum
Dative	flōrī	flōribus
Accusative	flōrem	flōrēs
Ablative	flōre	flōribus
Vocative	flōs	flōrēs

Derived terms

• flōreō
• flōreus
• *flōriculus (Vulgar Latin)
• flōsculus

Related terms

• Flōra
• flōrālia
• flōrēns
• flōrenter
• flōrentes
• flōrescō
• flōreus
• flōricomus
• flōridē
• flōridulus
• flōrifer
• flōrigenus
• flōriger
• flōritiō
• flōrōsus
• flōrulentus
• flosculē
• flosculus

 

Descendants

• Aragonese: flor
• Esperanto: floro
  • Ido: floro
• Interlingua: flor
• Old French: flor, fleur, flour, flur
  • Cornish: flour, flowr
  • English: flower, flourish
  • French: fleur
    • Haitian Creole: flè
  • Irish: plúr
  • Norman: flieur (Jersey), flleur (Guernsey)
  • Scots: flour
  • Scottish Gaelic: flùr
  • Walloon: fleur
• Old Leonese:
  • Asturian: flor
  • Extremaduran: frol
  • Mirandese: frol, flor
• Old Galician-Portuguese: flor, fror, frol, *chor
  • Galician: flor, chor
  • Portuguese: flor, frol, chor
• Old Occitan: flor
  • Catalan: flor
  • Occitan: flor, flour, hlor
• Old Spanish: flor
  • Ladino: flor
  • Spanish: flor
• Aromanian: floari, floarã
• Corsican: fiore
• Dalmatian: fiaur
• Friulian: flôr
• Istriot: fiuri
• Italian: fiore
• Romagnol: fjór
• Romanian: floare
• Romansch: flur
• Sardinian: frore, fiòre, flore
• Sicilian: ciuri
• Swedish: flor
• Venetian: fior
• → Maltese: fjura (from Italo-Romance)

References

• “flos”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “flos”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• flos in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• flos in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • the prime of youthful vigour: flos aetatis
    
  • the perfume exhaled by flowers: odores, qui efflantur e floribus
    
  • (ambiguous) flowers of rhetoric; embellishments of style: lumina, flores dicendi (De Or. 3. 25. 96)
    
  • (ambiguous) a glorious expanse of flowers: laetissimi flores (Verr. 4. 48. 107)