WotD: hydrangea

[muckefuck]

1. die Hortensie
2. de hortensia
3. la hortensia
4. l'hortènsia
5. l'hortensia
6. y tension, blodyn yr enfys, blodyn yr seithliw
7. an hiodrainsia
8. 수국 (水菊), 자양화 (紫陽花)
9. 繡球花 xiùqiúhuā

Notes: As the uniformity of European names and diversity of Asian ones suggests, hydrangeas are native to Asia and only a recent import to the West. Sources differ on whether Hortensia pays homage to a woman named Hortense or whether it's independently derived from Latin hortensis "of a garden".

8. 자양화 is an archaic term found in earlier documents. Literally, this is "purple yang flower", but as 紫陽 Zīyáng is also the name of an ancient city in Sichuan Province, it's possible that the flowers are named for it. The corresponding characters, 紫陽花, are also used in Japanese as an ateji spelling of the native word ajisai. It's also an alternative (archaic?) name for the hydrangea in Chinese.

(The modern name, 수국, is Sino-Korean for "water chrysanthemum".)

9. Literally, "embroidered ball flower". Other Chinese names (which may designate individual species) are 八仙花 "Eight Immortals flower", 七變化 "seven changes", and--bizarrely, given their origin--洋繡球 "foreign embroidered ball".

Comments

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Wait until you see this one.