orchid: [19] Greek órkhis meant ‘testicle’ (a sense preserved in English orchitis ‘inflammation of the testicles’ [18]). The tuberous roots of the orchid supposedly resemble testicles (hence the old dialect name ballock’s-grass for various sorts of wild orchid), and so the plant was named órkhis. The Latin form orchis was taken by botanists of the 16th and 17th centuries as the basis for the plant’s scientific name (they smuggled an inauthentic d into it, under the mistaken impression that its stem form was orchid-), and it passed from there into English.
orchid (n.)
1845, introduced by John Lindley in "School Botanty," from Modern Latin Orchide? (Linnaeus), the plant's family name, from Latin orchis, a kind of orchid, from Greek orkhis (genitive orkheos) "orchid," literally "testicle," from PIE *orghi-, the standard root for "testicle" (cognates: Avestan erezi "testicles," Armenian orjik, Middle Irish uirgge, Irish uirge "testicle," Lithuanian erzilas "stallion"). The plant so called because of the shape of its root. Earlier in English in Latin form, orchis (1560s), and in Middle English it was ballockwort (c. 1300; see ballocks). Marred by extraneous -d- in an attempt to extract the Latin stem.
例文
1. the exotic blooms of the orchid
特異なラン
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2.There are over 35,000 species of orchid distributed throughout the world.
35,000以上のランが世界中に分布しています。
3.The orchid is a class of plant which I have never tried to grow.
ランのような植物は今まで植えたことがありません。
4. Looking up at the eaves, Orchid muttered: " Why isn't Spring Maiden back yet? 」
ランは天井の軒先に一枚張り出し、独り言を言った。「若い娘はまだ帰ってこないよ！
5.Gripping my sleeve Ahyuan stared into Orchid 's eyes.