zinnia

See also: Zinnia

English

Wikispecies

Etymology

Borrowed from translingual Zinnia. Coined in 1767, after Johann Gottfried Zinn, German botanist (d. 1759).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /zɪni.ə/, /ziɲjə/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

zinnia (plural zinnias)

  1. Any of several brightly coloured flowering plants, of the genus Zinnia, native to tropical America; old maid.
    • 1947, Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano, New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, page 134:
      [] the Consul at this moment greeted Mr. Quincey's cat, momentarily forgetting its owner again as the grey, meditative animal, with a tail so long it trailed on the ground, came stalking through the zinnias: []
    • 1963 (date written), John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces, London: Penguin Books, published 1980 (1981 printing), →ISBN:
      Santa sighed at the unfairness of it all and slammed the picture down on the mantelpiece among the bowl of wax fruit and the bouquet of paper zinnias and the statue of the Virgin Mary and the figurine of the Infant of Prague.

Derived terms

Translations

French

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /zi.nja/
  • Audio:(file)

Noun

zinnia m (plural zinnias)

  1. zinnia

Further reading

Italian

Noun

zinnia f (plural zinnie)

  1. zinnia

Anagrams

Spanish

Noun

zinnia f (plural zinnias)

  1. zinnia

Further reading