English
amorpha
Amorpha comes from Ancient Greek ἄμορφος ‘shapeless, deformed’.
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEἄμορφοςámorphos‘shapeless, deformed’
- Englishearliest quotation 1847amorpha
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEἄμορφοςámorphos‘shapeless, deformed’
- Englishearliest quotation 1847amorpha
Earliest quotation: 1847, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline: “Billowy bays of grass ever rolling in shadow and…”
The story
From the genus name, Amorpha, from Ancient Greek ἄμορφος (ámorphos, “shapeless, deformed”), because the flowers have only one petal rather than the three of other genera in the subfamily Faboideae.
Every English word from Ancient Greek ἄμορφος
Today it means
noun Any species of the genus Amorpha of leguminous shrubs.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Ancient Greek ἄμορφος / amorpha