heliotrope

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“
Not less curious is the habit of that flower which is called the heliotrope, which in the morning looks upon the rising sun and, following its journey to its setting, never turns away its face Of the protection of nurseries and meadows XLVII.

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Definitions (17)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. noun Any of several plants of the genus Heliotropium, especially H. arborescens, native to Peru and having small, highly fragrant purplish flowers. Also called turnsole.
  2. noun The garden heliotrope.
  3. noun Any of various plants that turn toward the sun.
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Examples (50)

  • Parfums de Nicolaï Mimosaïque shows mimosa as the airy, elegant, French scent you might anticipate (especially after smelling Parfums de Nicolai's iris-based Odalisque), while Caron Farnesiana, predictably, turns mimosa into a wonderful but heavier vanilla, heliotrope, and powdered milk scent. —  nstperfume
  • The bees are humming round the bed of purple heliotrope, and drowsily murmuring in the shelter of the soft petals of the blush roses whose sweetness brings back the fragrance of days that are gone. —  A Book of Myths
  • There were the sweet mignonette and heliotrope, the pink verbena, and the beautiful white scented verbena, the gay phlox, the pure candytuft, bits of lemon blossoms, and the faithful pansies. —  The Angel Children or, Stories from Cloud-Land
  • Your Aunt Deborah and I are very fond of it"--here she sighed--"but for certain reasons--reasons you would not understand--we do not like to hear the word heliotrope mentioned. —  Scottish Ghost Stories
  • It's positively buried in roses and heliotrope, and you'd never know it had a chimney. —  Virginia of Elk Creek Valley
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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English elitrope (from Old English eliotropus) and French héliotrope, both from Latin hēliotropium, from Greek hēliotropion : hēlio-, helio- + tropos, turn; see trope.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Also heliotropion, q. v.; = French héliotrope = Spanish Portuguese heliotropio = Italian eliotropio, from Latin heliotropium, from Greek ἡλιοτρόπιον, a sun-dial, also a plant, the heliotrope, turnsol (in this sense also ἡλιοτρόπος, and so called because the flowers were supposed to turn toward the sun, or because they appear at the summer solstice), also a green stone streaked with red, from ἡλιος, the sun, + τρέπειν, turn, τρορή, a turning.
 

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/ˈhilɪətroʊp/
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