Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A common name for Gentiana acaulis, a dwarf perennial species of the Alps, bearing large, beautiful, intensely blue flowers.
- noun A particular shade of blue.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A kind of blue color.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun genus of herbs with flowers that resemble gentian; in some classifications included in genus Gentiana
- noun low-growing alpine plant cultivated for its dark glossy green leaves in basal rosettes and showy solitary bell-shaped blue flowers
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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In contrast to Gentianella, which is delicate and short in stature, Blue Stocking is an aggressive perennial that likes the East Coast.
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Other nationally important terrestrial vegetation species include the early spider orchid Ophrys sphegodes, the Early Gentian Gentianella anglica, the Nottingham catchfly Silene nutans and Wild cabbage Brassica oleracea var. oleracea
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Northern Atlantic species include Botiychium lunaria, Ophioglossum vulgatum, Gentianella campestris, Ligusticum scoticum and Sedum rosea with Arctic-Alpine montane species such as Silene acaulis and Saxifraga oppositifolia.
St Kilda (Hirta) National Nature Reserve, United Kingdom 2008
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Donna has been a Gentianella I will not have her called a bluestocking for years; and she could tell you astonishing things!
June 2007 2007
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What's a Gentianella, that it would be contrasted with bluestocking?
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Well, if a Gentianella was called a bluestocking commonly, then insisting that the woman in question be named a Gentianella would be insisting that there is little (nothing?) common about her (and by extension, about being a female scientist?)
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Gentianella is a plant from the Gentian family; blueish purple plants.
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What's a Gentianella, that it would be contrasted with bluestocking?
June 2007 2007
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Donna has been a Gentianella I will not have her called a bluestocking for years; and she could tell you astonishing things!
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"Bluestocking" probably sounded rather crass, whereas "Gentianella", if the flower is blue, plays on the idea but with the connotation that the woman to whom it is applied retains her feminine delicacy.
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