Pages

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

The Dandy Lion



I may be in a small minority here, but I have gone for years without knowing the etymology of Dandylion, I thought (mistakenly) that it must have been something to do with the bold flower, a dandy indeed. I knew the French for dandelion - pissenlit - and that it was called such because of the diuretic properties of the roots. But I hadn't realised that there was another French word - Dent de Lion, or tooth of the lion seeing the shape of the leaves. The penny finally dropped. This is a London dandylion, though.

2 comments:

  1. One of the few advantages of having a latin language (italian) as a mother tongue :)

    Dente di Leone in Italian
    Dent de Lion in French
    Dandelion in English

    Easy :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. Muthecow23:26

    Interestingly it's also in the same in German:
    Löwen (lion) + zahn (tooth) = löwenzahn (dandelion)

    ReplyDelete

Sorry verification is here to stay .... a short experiment without showed it is neeeded