Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of several species of iris having a fragrant rootstock, especially a variety of the hybrid Iris germanica.
- n. The fragrant rootstock of the orris, used in perfumes and cosmetics. Also called orrisroot.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A name given to laces of varied design in gold and silver.
- n. Galloon and gimp used in upholstery.
- n. A plant from which orris-root is obtained. Also orrice.
Wiktionary
- n. Any of several irises that have a fragrant root, especially Iris germanica (variety florentina).
- n. The fragrant root of such an iris; the orris root.
- n. A type of gold or silver lace.
- n. A pattern in which gold lace or silver lace is worked, especially one in which the edges are ornamented with conical figures placed at equal distances, with spots between them.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Bot.) A plant of the genus Iris (Iris Florentina); a kind of flower-de-luce. Its rootstock has an odor resembling that of violets.
- n. A sort of gold or silver lace.
- n. A peculiar pattern in which gold lace or silver lace is worked; especially, one in which the edges are ornamented with conical figures placed at equal distances, with spots between them.
WordNet 3.0
- n. German iris having large white flowers with lavender-tinged falls and a fragrant rhizome
- n. fragrant rootstock of various irises especially Florentine iris; used in perfumes and medicines
Etymologies
- Contracted from orfrays, or from arras. (Wiktionary)
- Probably alteration of Middle English yreos, from Medieval Latin, alteration of Latin īris; see iris. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Then the delectable, creamy blend of vanilla, heliotrope and orris, which is like a layer of dark-golden nougat ...”
“When I use violet flower note in my perfumes, it is a compound made if various oils that are rich in ionone - such as orris root, violet leaf absolute, boronia along with other floral oils or absolutes to round off the accord and give it a soft flowery impression.”
“But no orris root really fascinated and excited me as much as a particular batch I received from Eden Botanical: Beurre d’Iris aka orris butter -which really is the essential oil, but with a consistency of crumbly butter or powdery wax.”
“In order to create a unique taste, Jared Brown went through a raft of historical recipes from the 1,000-drinks-book library at his home in Gloucestershire, and started experimenting with ingredients such as Italian orris root and Chinese cassia bark.”
“For his new fragrance, he explodes the notion of a shrinking violet with a lavish list of fancy floral notes like violet leaf, ultra-rare Tuscan orris root and a touch of benzoin and musk. $100, saks.com”
“It looks as though we may have lost the rhubarb plants completely to the winter, but the orris root irises are coming up, as well as the very tenacious lemon balm.”
“And it was then a matter of experimenting with the botanicals – Macedonian juniper berries, Bulgarian coriander seed, French angelica root, Spanish liquorice root, Italian orris root, Spanish ground almond, Chinese cassia bark, Madagascan cinnamon, and Spanish orange peel and lemon peel – and designing the still.”
“To prolong the potpourri's scent, use a fixative—a powdered root like orris or angelica, available at herbco.com .”
“(Years later I discovered orris was made from the root of irises.)”
The Huffington Post: Richard C. Morais: Culinary Tips From a Film Wallah
“The most curious item; orris, a methanol-looking liquid that he told me was made from a West Bengal flower.”
The Huffington Post: Richard C. Morais: Culinary Tips From a Film Wallah
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘orris’.
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Aromata Aromatica
Fragrant things and terms that describe them. Generic names of botanical binomials aren't capitalized if the unconventional lower case form has a useful Wordnik definition. I'm primarily seeking te...
curry leaf, tuberose, orris, moss rose, smudge stick, lavender, frangipani, sweet acacia, sweet bay, tea rose, patchouli, linaloa and 162 more...
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Perfumery
perfume, perfumer, aromachologist, fougère, le nez, civet, perfumer's organ, Tapputi, Eau de Cologne, eau de toilette, eau de perfume, eaux and 92 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, O
opacity, opaline, olfactory, orthoepy, orthoepy, oleaginous, obloquy, oasitic, obtrude, orthotic, overweening, ostinato and 125 more...
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Dan: You read this already. — Your p...
Long ago, I learned a useful habit from a good friend: Every time he looked up a word in his dictionary, he’d put a mark next to it. His explanation for this was vague at best, but I understood a...
dittography, haplology, haplography, idiomology, cacoepy, orthoepist, psellism, pronunciation spe..., galbe, theropod, publican, sciolist and 111 more...
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patterns
ergodic, stochastic, stereopsis, echolocation, holocation, broker, map, intarsia, encipher, ocellus, muslin, mandelbrot set and 159 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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Whatever you rolled in, it sure smell...
aka words having to do with scent
oude, sillage, vanilla, chypre, mephitic, noisome, opoponax, patchouli, cardamom, grains of paradise, rice flower, chamomile and 67 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for orris.
reesetee It's also a gold or silver braid. :-)
I didn't realize the words orris and iris were related. Jul 25, 2007
arby Short for "orris root", aka iris. I did not know this but apparently it's used to make gin, most famously Bombay Sapphire. At least, so says this unsourced Wikipedia article. Jul 25, 2007