Etymo

dandelion

A common yellow-flowered plant with deeply notched leaves.

Played on · Day 60 · word 1 of 5

The lion hides in the leaves

How dandelion reached English

oldest first
  • dent‘tooth’
  • lion‘lion’

combined

  1. Anglo-French

    dent de lion

    ‘Tooth of the lion’

    into Middle English

  2. Middle English

    dendelyoun

    ‘The plant’

    became English

  3. English

    dandelion

    ‘The plant’

The story of dandelion

Anglo-French dent de lion meant tooth of the lion. The comparison concerns the plant's jagged leaves. The phrase became a single English word through forms such as dendelyoun.

The connector de is supplied in the question; the two nouns are the scored pieces.

Source

Merriam-Webster: dandelion

Word History and Kids Word Origin explain the phrase, historical spelling and leaf comparison.

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