Etymology

lily

L1I1L1Y4

Today it means: Any of several flowers in the genus Lilium of the family Liliaceae, which includes a great many ornamental species. Full definition →

Middle English lilie ← Old English lilie ← Latin līlia
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

lily · noun, adjective1

  1. Ancient Greek · derived fromλείριον
  2. Latin · derived fromlīlia
  3. Old English · inherited fromlilie
  4. Middle English · inherited fromlilie
  5. English todaylily

From Middle English lilie, from Old English lilie, from Latin līlia, plural of līlium, from Ancient Greek λείριον (leírion). See there for more.

Lily · proper noun2

A 19th-century flower name, from lily. Also a diminutive of Lilian and sometimes Elizabeth.

Words from the same roots

Latinlīlia all →

lilia

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.