RHODODENDRON杜鹃花

Like many other flower names, rhododendron enters the English record in the mid-1500s. The name literally means “rose tree” in Greek. It’s an apt name, for this shrub or small tree blooms with brilliant, rose-colored flowers.和其他众多鲜花名一样，rhododendron（杜鹃）是16世纪中叶传入英语中的。Rhododendron在希腊语中的意思是“玫瑰树”。这个名字非常贴切，因为这种像小树一样的灌木植物能开出鲜艳的玫瑰色花朵。

9. TULIP郁金香

TULIP郁金香

Passing into English via Dutch or German in the late 1500s, tulip actually comes from the Turkishtülbent, based on the Persian dulband:“turban.” The flower, to its ancient namers, resembled the male headwear worn throughout the Middle East, India, and parts of Africa.16世纪晚期，tulip（郁金香）从荷兰语或德语中传入英语，这个单词实际上源自于Turkishtülbent。Turkishtülbent来自于波斯语dulband，指“穆斯林的头巾”。按照郁金香古代名字的意思，这种花好像中东、印度以及非洲部分地区男性的头饰。

10. VIOLET紫罗兰

VIOLET紫罗兰

Before we had the color violet, recorded by the late 1300s, we had the flower violet, emerging some decades earlier in the same century. Violet grows out of the French violete or violette, a diminutive of viole, in turn the Latin viola, its name for this distinctively purple flower. This viola has no etymological relationship to the instrument. Some scholars suspect Latin got viola from the Greek name for the plant, ion.据记载，在14世纪末期人们用violet表示紫罗兰色，而再往前几十年，也是在14世纪，violet就指代紫罗兰鲜花。Violet来自于法语中的 violete或violette，它们是viole的指小词，而viole来自于拉丁语单词 viola，也就是拉丁语中对这种独特的紫色花朵的称呼。拉丁文viola（英语中有中提琴的意思）和中提琴毫无关系。一些学者认为，它来自于希腊语中对紫罗兰的称呼 ion。

英文来源：mentalfloss.com

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