| Word | orchidaceous |
|---|---|
| Date | September 15, 2013 |
| Type | adjective |
| Syllables | or-kuh-DAY-shus |
| Etymology | In its sense first used by botanists in the 1830s, "orchidaceous" means "belonging to the family Orchidaceae"-that is, to the orchid family, a very large family of flowering plants. While the basic shape of an orchid is simple-three petals with, on many orchids, an enlarged middle petal-there is no such thing as a typical orchid. Orchids range in size from very tiny flowers on inch-high plants to flowers a foot across, and they grow in habitats from tropical rain forests to semideserts. But when people use "orchidaceous" as a synonym for "flashy" in phrases like "orchidaceous writing," "orchidaceous colors," and "orchidaceous ladies," it's the colorful, showy tropical species they have in mind-species which, as Jacob Breynius, a 17th-century German botanist, put it, "surely excite our greatest admiration." |
| Examples | The actress attended the premiere wearing an orchidaceous creation by a renowned fashion designer. "Where I am, in orchidaceous Hawaii, among squawking geese, the sun glittering on the sea.…" -Paul Theroux in answer to the question "Where would you most like to be right now?" in an interview in The Guardian (London), May 25, 2013 |
| Definition | 1 : of, relating to, or resembling the orchids 2 : showy, ostentatious |
Tags: wordoftheday::adjective
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