Etymology

gladiolus

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Today it means: The center part of the sternum. Full definition →

Latin gladiolus
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The story

  1. Latin · learned borrowing fromgladiolus“little sword, sword lily”
  2. English todaygladiolus

Learned borrowing from Latin gladiolus (“little sword, sword lily”), diminutive of gladius (“sword”). Compare Middle English gladiol, whence gladiole.

Words from the same roots

Latingladiolus all →

gladengladiole

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.