Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of several bulbous plants of the genus Calochortus of western North America, having variously colored, tuliplike flowers.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A plant of the genus Calochortus. Also called
butterfly-tulip .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- (Bot.) One of a genus (Calochortus) of tuliplike bulbous herbs with large, and often gaycolored, blossoms. Called also
butterfly lily . Most of them are natives of California.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun One of several species of a
genus (Calochortus) that grow in dry grasslands andsemideserts ,tulip -likebulbous herbs with large and often brightly coloredblossoms .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun any of several plants of the genus Calochortus having tulip-shaped flowers with 3 sepals and 3 petals; southwestern United States and Mexico
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[Probably from American Spanish mariposa, from Spanish, butterfly, from María pósate, Mary alight!, María, Mary + pósate, second person sing. reflexive imperative of posar, to perch (from Late Latin pausāre, to pause, from Latin pausa, pause).]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From Spanish mariposa ("butterfly") + lily. So called from the gay appearance of the blossoms.
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