wallflower

English

WOTD – 27 November 2009

Wallflowers

Etymology

wall +‎ flower

Alternative forms

• wall-flower
• wall flower

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈwɔːl.ˌflɑʊ.ə/
• IPA^(key): /ˈwɔl.ˌflɑʊ.ɚ/, /ˈwɑl.ˌflɑʊ.ɚ/

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

Noun

wallflower (plural wallflowers)

1. Any of several short-lived herbs or shrubs of the Erysimum genus with bright yellow to red flowers.
   • 1809, William Nicholson, “BOTANY”, in The British Encyclopedia, or Dictionary of Arts and Sciences; […], volume I (A … B), London: Printed by C[harles] Whittingham, […]; for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, […], →OCLC, column 1:

     A polypetalous corolla is either cruciform, as in a wall-flower, rosaceous, papilionaceous, as in the pea kind, or incomplete, when some parts found in analogous flowers are wanting.

2. , a poisonous bushy shrub, endemic to Australia.
3. (informal) A person who is socially awkward, especially one who does not dance at a party due to shyness.
   • 2019, Liz Tyner, To Win a Wallflower, Harlequin (→ISBN)

     I've always been a wallflower, even in my own home. But, I'm willing to learn to be a part of your world. I would like to. I have already told my parents that I want to go to soirées.

Translations

any of several short-lived herbs or shrubs of the Erysimum

• Armenian: շահպրակ (hy) (šahprak)
• Bulgarian: боянка f (bojanka)
• Catalan: violer groc, (flower)viola groca
• Danish: hjørneklap c
• Dutch: steenraket f, muurbloem (nl) m or f
• Finnish: ukonnauris (fi)
• French: vélar (fr) m, herbe aux chantres (fr)
• German: Goldlack m
• Icelandic: gulltoppur m
• Irish: lus an bhalla m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: violaciocca f
• Persian: خیری (fa) (xeyri)
• Polish: pszonak (pl) m, lak (pl) m (especially E. cheiri)
• Portuguese: goivo (pt) m, goiveira f
• Romanian: micsandră-sălbatică (ro) f, micsandră-de-munte (ro) f
• Russian: желтофиоль (ru) (želtofiolʹ)
• Spanish: alhelí (es) m
• Swedish: gyllenlack (sv), kårel c
• Turkish: şebboy (tr)

socially awkward person

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 壁花

• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: seinäkukkanen, seinäruusu (fi)
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Mauerblümchen (de) n
• Greek: please add this translation if you can
• Hebrew: please add this translation if you can
• Icelandic: veggjaskraut n, bekkjarrós f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: please add this translation if you can
• Japanese: 壁の花 (かべのはな, kabe no hana)
• Korean: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian: veggpryd m
• Polish: ktoś podpierający ściany
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: inadaptado (es), feo del baile, fea del baile
• Swedish: blyg viol, vägglus (sv)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Mandarin: ^{(please verify)} 香罗兰 (xiāng luó lán), ^{(please verify)} 局外人 (zh) (júwàirén) (júwàirén)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

Verb

wallflower (third-person singular simple present wallflowers, present participle wallflowering, simple past and past participle wallflowered)

1. (intransitive) To stand shyly apart from a dance, waiting to be asked to join in.
   • 2010, Alexandra Carter, ‎Janet O'Shea, The Routledge Dance Studies Reader (page 237)

     […] the idea that a full tango experience is impossible without the presence of wallflowers and without the threat of wallflowering as the potential dancers enter the tango club.

Further reading

• Erysimum on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Template:commonscatlite
• “wallflower”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.