dandelion

English

WOTD – 12 October 2007

A dandelion in flower

A seeding dandelion

Etymology

From Middle English dentdelyon, from Old French dent de lion (“lion's tooth”), also in Latin dēns leōnis, referring to the jagged shape of the plant's leaves. The term is now rare in French (together with liondent, calque from Germanic), but compare Spanish diente de león, Portuguese dente-de-leão, Italian dente di leone, German Löwenzahn, Norwegian Bokmål løvetann, Welsh dant y llew, all descendants, calques, or loan translations of the Latin term. First attested in the late 14th c.

Displaced various words, including native Old English ǣġwyrt, native Middle English houndes-tooth, and English tell-time and swine's snout; and mostly displaced English cankerwort, monk's head, and pissabed.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈdæn.dəˌlaɪ.ən/, /ˈdæn.diˌlaɪ.ən/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈdæn.dɪˌlaɪ.ən/, /ˈdæn.dəˌlaɪ.ən/

• Audio (UK):

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• Audio (US):

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• Audio (Australian):

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Noun

dandelion (countable and uncountable, plural dandelions)

1. (countable) Any of the several species of plant in the genus Taraxacum, characterised by yellow flower heads and notched, broad-ended leaves, especially the common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale).
   • 1910, Joseph Richardson Parke, The Wizard of the Damavant: A Tale of the Crusades, page 151:

     the sanguine hue of the poppy and the hibiscus, the gold of the daisy and dandelion, the dark green of the sorrage on either side, and the blue and purple of the blossoming mulberry and sycamore

   • 2018 April 24, John Launer, “Do We Even Need Men?”, in Literary Hub‎^[1]:

     There are asexual variants among all sorts of creatures, including jellyfish, dandelions, lichens and lizards.

2. (countable) The flower head or fruiting head of the dandelion plant.
3. (uncountable) A yellow colour, like that of the flower.

   dandelion:  

Hyponyms

• Taraxacum albidum, a white-flowering Japanese dandelion.
• Taraxacum californicum, the endangered California dandelion.
• Taraxacum japonicum, Japanese dandelion. No ring of smallish, downward-turned leaves under the flowerhead.
• Taraxacum kok-saghyz, Russian dandelion, which produces rubber.
• Taraxacum laevigatum, red-seeded dandelion; achenes reddish brown and leaves deeply cut throughout length. Inner bracts' tips are hooded.
  • Taraxacum erythrospermum, often considered a variety of Taraxacum laevigatum.
• Taraxacum officinale (syn. Taraxacum officinale subsp. vulgare), common dandelion. Found in many forms.

Derived terms

• blue dandelion
• Bolander's mock dandelion
• dandelion and burdock
• dandelion clock
• dandelion coffee
• dandelion greens
• dandelionlike
• dandelion salad
• dandelion seed
• dandelion tea
• dandelion wine
• dandelion yellow
• desert dandelion
• dwarf dandelion
• fall dandelion
• false dandelion
• Italian dandelion
• Kazakh dandelion
• Russian dandelion

Translations

plant, wild flower of the genus Taraxacum

• Albanian: luleradhiqe (sq)
• Amharic: ዳንዴሊዮን (dandeliyon)
• Arabic: هِنْدِبَاء f (hindibāʔ), طَرْخَشْقُون m (ṭarḵašqūn), مُرّ (ar) m (murr) (obsolete)
• Armenian: խատուտիկ (hy) (xatutik)
• Asturian: cardeña f, cardencha f, llechón m, xiblata (ast) f, tarriellu m (Western)
• Avar: хӏамагага (ḥʳamagaga)
• Azerbaijani: zəncirotu
• Bashkir: бәпембә (bəpembə)
• Basque: txikoria-belar, sorgin-belar, mando-belar
• Belarusian: адува́нчык m (aduvánčyk), дзьмуха́вец m (dzʹmuxávjec)
• Bulgarian: глухарче n (gluharče)
• Buryat: нямняа сэсэг (njamnjaa seseg), нямняахай (njamnjaaxaj)
• Catalan: dent de lleó (ca) m
• Chechen: баппа (bappa)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 蒲公英 (pou⁴ gung¹ jing¹)

  Mandarin: 蒲公英 (zh) (púgōngyīng)

• Cornish: dans lew m
• Cree:

  Plains Cree: ᐅᓵᐋᐧᐱᑯᓀᐢ, osâwâpikones

• Czech: pampeliška (cs) f
• Danish: mælkebøtte (da) c, løvetand c
• Dargwa: къакъажужу (ɢaɢažužu)
• Dutch: paardenbloem (nl)
• Esperanto: leondento (eo), leontodo
• Estonian: võilill (et)
• Faroese: hagasólja f, várhagasólja f, tyrilshattur m
• Finnish: voikukka (fi)
• French: pissenlit (fr) m, dent-de-lion (fr) m (Switzerland), baraban (fr) m
• Galician: dente-de-león m, mexacán (gl) m
• Georgian: ბაბუაწვერა (babuac̣vera)
• German: Löwenzahn (de) m, Hundeblume (de) f, Kuhblume f, (South German, regional) Seichblume f, Pusteblume (de) f, Butterblume (de) f

  Alemannic German: Chrottepösche m (Zurich), Söiblueme f (Bern), Sunnewirbel (Schwyz), Loiezaa

• Greek: αγριοραδίκι (el) n (agrioradíki)
• Halkomelem: qwáyúwél
• Hebrew: מרגנית (he) f (marganít), שינן (he) m (šinán), סביון (he) m (savyón)
• Hindi: डेंडिलियन m (ḍenḍiliyan)
• Hungarian: pitypang (hu), gyermekláncfű (hu)
• Icelandic: fífill (is) m
• Indonesian: bunga randa tapak
• Ingrian: maitokukka
• Ingush: баппа (bappa)
• Irish: caisearbhán (ga) m
• Italian: soffione (it) m, dente di leone (it) m
• Japanese: たんぽぽ (ja) (tanpopo)
• Javanese: pakliman
• Kazakh: бақбақ (baqbaq)
• Korean: 민들레 (ko) (mindeulle)
• Kumyk: елпинчек (yelpinçek)
• Kyrgyz: каакым (ky) (kaakım)
• Ladin: pulëntes f pl
• Latgalian: pīnine f
• Latin: aphaca f
• Latvian: pienene (lv) f
• Lithuanian: kiaulpienė f
• Luxembourgish: Bettseechesch f, Pissblumm f
• Macedonian: глуварче n (gluvarče), млечка f (mlečka), млечајка f (mlečajka)
• Malay: dandelion, paliman, ڤليمن
• Malayalam: അപ്പൂപ്പൻതാടി n (appūppaṉtāṭi)
• Māori: tohetaka, tohetake, tawao
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: багваахай цэцэг (bagvaaxaj ceceg)

  Mongolian script: ᠪᠠᠭᠪᠠᠬᠠᠶ
  ᠴᠡᠴᠡᠭ (baɣbaqay čečeg)

• Nogai: маьметекей (mämetekey)
• Norman: pissenlît m, dent-de-lion f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: løvetann (no) m or f

  Nynorsk: løvetann f

• Nuosu: ꃮꃀꋙꈌ (vot mop zzax ke)
• Occitan: dent de leon f, pissalach (oc) m, gravèl m
• Old English: ǣġwyrt f
• Pannonian Rusyn: лампащик m (lampaščik), гушатково квеце n (hušatkovo kvece), гушаткова трава f (hušatkova trava)
• Persian: قاصدک (fa) (qâsedak)
• Plautdietsch: Schlangenbloom f
• Polish: mniszek (pl) m, podbiał (pl) m, dmuchawiec (pl) m, mlecz (pl) m
• Portuguese: dente-de-leão (pt) m
• Romanian: păpădie (ro) f
• Russian: одува́нчик (ru) m (oduvánčik)
• Scottish Gaelic: beàrnan-Brìde m, bior nam Brìde m, caisearbhan nam muc m, fiacaill-leòmhainn f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: масла́чак m

  Latin: masláčak (sh) m

• Slovak: púpava (sk) f
• Slovene: regrat (sl) m
• Southern Altai: ак баш (ak baš)
• Spanish: diente de león (es) m, diente leonés m
• Swedish: maskros (sv) c
• Tagalog: ngiping-leon (tl), amargon (tl)
• Tajik: коқу (koqu)
• Tamil: சீமைக் காட்டுமுள்ளங்கி (cīmaik kāṭṭumuḷḷaṅki)
• Tashelhit: ⵡⴰⵡⵊⴹⵎ m (wawjḍm), ⴰⵡⵊⴹⵉⵎ m (awjḍim)
• Tatar: тузганак (tt) (tuzğanaq)
• Telugu: please add this translation if you can
• Thai: แดนดี้ไลออน (daendêelaion)
• Turkish: karahindiba (tr), radika, aslan dişi

  Ottoman Turkish: هندبا (hindiba), كونه‌یك (güneyik)

• Turkmen: tozga
• Ukrainian: кульба́ба f (kulʹbába)
• Uyghur: مامكاپ (mamkap)
• Uzbek: qoqi (uz), qoqigul (uz), gulqoqi (uz), momaqaymoq (uz)
• Vietnamese: bồ công anh
• Volapük: (plant) tarak (vo), (flower) tarakaflor (vo)
• Walloon: såvaedje cécoreye (wa) f, dint-d'-liyon m, pixhelét m, salåde des tchamps (wa) f
• Welsh: dant y llew (cy) m
• Yiddish: בלעזערל n (blezerl), לופֿטל n (luftl)

color of a dandelion flower, dandelion color, dandelion yellow

• Finnish: voikukankeltainen
• German: Löwenzahnfarbe f, Löwenzahngelb n
• Polish: kolor mniszka m
• Spanish: color leonado m, color aleonado m
• Volapük: tarakafloraköl, tarakaflorayelov

Adjective

dandelion (not comparable)

1. Of a yellow colour, like that of the flower.

Translations

of a yellow colour

• Danish: mælkebøtte (da), løvetand
• Finnish: voikukankeltainen
• French: pissenlit (fr) m
• German: löwenzahnfarbig, löwenzahngelb n
• Hungarian: pitypangsárga
• Norwegian: løvetann (no)
• Polish: żółty (pl)
• Slovene: rumen (sl) m, rumena f
• Spanish: leonado (es), aleonado (es)
• Volapük: tarakaflorakölik, tarakaflorayelovik

See also

• clock
• goatsbeard
• hawk's beard
• kok-saghyz
• oxtongue
• pissabed
• Taraxacum
• Appendix:Colors

Anagrams

• daldinone