Etymology
Although tulips are often associated with the Netherlands, commercial cultivation of the flower began in the Ottoman Empire. Tulips, or lale (from Persian لاله, lâleh) as they are also called in Iran, Turkey, Macedonia and Bulgaria comprise many species that together are indigenous to a vast area encompassing parts of Asia, Europe and north Africa.
The word tulip, which earlier appeared in English in forms such as tulipa or tulipant, entered the language by way of French: tulipe and its obsolete form tulipan or by way of Modern Latin tulīpa, from Ottoman Turkish tülbend ("muslin" or "gauze"), and is ultimately derived from the Persian: دلبند delband ("Turban"), this name being applied because of a perceived resemblance of the shape of a tulip flower to that of a turban.
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Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
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