Word of the Week – Dandelion
Dandelions. We’re all quite familiar with those sunny little flowers, right? Weeds, most people say. But to be quite honest, I always loved them. They’re so cheerful and happy when in their yellow stage…and though not quite so pretty when they’ve gone to seed, that white puff is FUN, am I right? Eh? Eh? 😉
But what about the word itself? Have you ever pondered why this oh-so-abundant member of the daisy family (that’s right, it IS a flower!) has “lion” in its name?
I think I always assumed that it was because the yellow petals were reminiscent of a mane. But nope. I was wrong.
Dandelion, which has been an English word since the 1300s, is actually from Old French dent de lion, which is in turn directly from Latin dens leonis, meaning “lion’s tooth.” Um…er…em…huh? Yup. Not for the petals…for the LEAVES, with their jagged edges.
Go figure!
Another name given once-upon-a-time to this plan was tell-time (also from the late 1300s), so called either because of how the flower opens up with the sunshine, or perhaps based on an idea that the number of puffs it takes to blow off the seeds corresponds to the hour. (Riiiiiight.) I’d never heard that name for them, but it was interesting enough to share!
Okay, so ‘fess up. How do you really feel about dandelions?
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, 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. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary. 
