fleur

fleur (plural fleurs)

1. fleur-de-lis

• pot-et-fleur

Inherited from Old French flur, flour, flor, from Latin flōrem (“flower; the finest part of something”), from Proto-Italic *flōs, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₃-s (“flower, blossom”), from *bʰleh₃- (“to bloom”). In some senses, from Middle French fleur (“surface, upper side, top layer”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *flōraz (“floor”).

• IPA^(key): /flœʁ/

• Audio (Western France)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -œʁ

An example of Epilobium (alterntatively, Chamaenerion) flowers (fleurs d’épilobes)

fleur f (plural fleurs)

1. (botany) flower; bloom; blossom; collectively, the reproductive organs and the envelope which surrounds them in angiosperms (also called "flowering plants")

   Je suis allé cueillir une fleur dans les champs.

   I went to pick a flower in the fields.

   Il m’a offert de magnifiques fleurs.

   He offered me magnificent flowers.

2. (metonymically) flowering plant; angiosperm; the plant with flowers itself

   Les orchidées sont des fleurs recherchées.

   Orchids are sought-after flowers.

3. (figuratively) a kind favor given by one person to another

   Il m’a fait une fleur.

   He gave me a kind favor.

4. (figuratively) the best of something

   Voici la fine fleur de la jeunesse française.

   Here's the cream of the crop of French youth.

   Mourir à la fleur de l’âge.

   to die in the prime of life

5. (figurative) the virginity of a woman
   • (Can we date this quote?), Jean de la Fontaine, Fables

     Il est bon de garder sa fleur ; mais pour l’avoir perdue il ne se faut pas pendre.

     It is good to guard one's blossom, but for having lost it one should not hang oneself.

6. (archaic, chemistry) Substances with a state of purity or extreme separation, produced by sublimation

   Fleurs de soufre, de zinc, d’arsenic, d’antimoine.

   refinements of sulfur, zinc, arsenic, antimony

• (flowering plant): angiosperme
• (kind favor): aide, faveur, service
• (best of something): crème de la crème, élite, gratin, meilleur, nec plus ultra
• (virginity): vertu, virginité

• (flower, bloom, blossom): arbre, inflorescence, capitule, ombelle, plante

• (flower, bloom, blossom): bractée, carpelle, étamine, fleuron, pédoncule, pétale, pistil, sépale, tépale

• (flower, bloom, blossom): androcée, calice, corolle, gynécée, involucre, périgone, périanthe, réceptacle floral

• Haitian Creole: flè

• effleurer
• efflorescence
• efflorescent
• fleuret
• fleureté
• floraison
• floral
• flore
• inflorescence
• passiflore
• quadriflore
• uniflore

• “fleur”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Borrowing from late Old French fleur.

fleur (plural fleurs)

1. Alternative form of flour

From Old French flor, flur, from Latin flōs, flōrem, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₃- (“flower, blossom”).

• IPA^(key): /fløːʀ/

fleur f (plural fleurs)

1. (botany) flower