tulip

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (1)  · 
“
Your tulip is my daughter.

View all »
Definitions (21)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun Any of several bulbous plants of the genus Tulipa, native chiefly to Asia and widely cultivated for their showy, variously colored flowers.
  2. noun The flower of any of these plants.
  3. Word History
    Although we associate tulips with Holland, both the flower and its name originated in the Middle East, where both are associated with turbans. Tulips were brought to Europe in the 16th century; the word tulip, which earlier in English appeared in such forms as tulipa or tulipant, came to us by way of French tulipe and its obsolete form tulipan or by way of Modern Latin tulīpa, from Ottoman Turkish tülbend, "muslin, gauze.” (Our word turban, first recorded in English in the 16th century, can also be traced to Ottoman Turkish tülbend.) The Turkish word for gauze, with which turbans can be wrapped, seems to have been used for the flower because a fully opened tulip was thought to resemble a turban.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (16)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • "We thought we were not as stupid as speculators in the 17th century who traded in Dutch tulip bulbs and annihilated everything," he said. —  Top Stories - Google News
  • Contrary to what was thought up until now, the first bulbs could have arrived to Holland, where today the tulip is the country symbol, through 11th century al-Andalus, five centuries before what was believed. —  PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news stories
  • Contrary to what was thought up until now, the first bulbs could have arrived to Holland, where today the tulip is the country symbol, through 11th century al-Andalus, five centuries before what was ... —  Megite Technology News: What's Happening Right Now
  • The average bloom-time for a tulip is ten days, and the gardens have planted early, mid-season, and late-blooming bulbs.
  • Strange to say, my farmer friend, who owned the rich Indiana soil in which the tree grew, did not know, until I told him, that the "poplar," as he called the tulip-tree, bears flowers. —  Lippincott's Magazine, August, 1885
More examples »
 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Words tagged tulip

peach melba · gandhi · pentagon · triangle · balalaika · paradise · copland's memory · barend barendse · attila's elite · cleopatra · bing crosby

More »

Stats

This word has been looked up 119 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. French tulipe, alteration of tulipan, from Ottoman Turkish tülbend, muslin, gauze, turban (from the shape of the opened flower), from Persian dulband, turban.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Formerly also tulipe, tulipie, also tulipa; =Middle Dutch tulpe, Dutch tulp =G. tulpe =Irish tulp, from Old French tulipe, tulippe, French tulipe =Old Spanish tulipa =Portuguese tulipa =Italian tulipa (New Latin tulipa); also Middle Dutch tulpaan =Danish tulipan =Swedish tulpan, from Old French tulipan =Spanish tulipan =Italian tulipano, a tulip; so called from its likeness to a turban: a particular use of Old French *tulipan, tulipant, tulpant, etc., later English tulipant etc., New Latin tulipa, etc., a turban: see turban.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/ˈtjulɪp/
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word about once a month.

Recently looked up

backer · Pluralism · rider · gonzo · pheromone

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

Der dicke Dachdecker deckte dir dein Dach, drum dank dem dicken Dachdecker, dass der dicke Dachdecker dir dein Dach deckte. · weitläufig · und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, so leben sie noch heute · redescheu · selbstverständlich