As we go through the last full month of summer (in the Northern Hemisphere, that is), I thought it would be fun to look at the histories of some of my favorite things about summer–flowers!
Let’s start with daisy.
The word, not surprisingly, dates back to Old English, and it is literally “day’s eye.” Why? Because the petals open with the sun and close at dusk. And it’s a very traditional name for the flower. Even the Latin word, solis oculus, means “sun’s eye.”
Now, Daisy is also a traditional nickname for Margaret…and if, like me, you wonder why, for that we can blame the French. 😉 You see, the French Marguerite was their name for the flower but also a traditional girl’s name. When English borrowed the name, they also eventually borrowed the translation–but since we had another word for the flower, we just used that as the nickname.
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. Having successfully launched two homeschool grads, she now spends her time writing fiction, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years, as well as a fantasy series and contemporary mysteries and romances. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.