flos

A root noun interpreted as an s-stem noun, from Proto-Italic *flōs, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₃-s (“flower, blossom”), from *bʰleh₃- (“to bloom”). Cognates include Ancient Greek φύλλον (phúllon), Gothic 𐌱𐌻𐍉𐌼𐌰 (blōma) and Old English blōstm, blæd (“leaf”) (English blossom, blade).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /floːs/, [fɫ̪oːs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /flos/, [flɔs]

flōs m (genitive flōris); third declension

1. flower, blossom
   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 3.253–254:

     ferte deae flōrēs: gaudet flōrentibus herbīs haec dea

     Bring flowers for the goddess; this goddess takes pleasure in flowering plants.

2. (figuratively) the best kind or part of something
3. (figuratively) the prime; best state of things
4. (figuratively) an ornament or embellishment

Third-declension noun.

• “flos”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “flos”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• flos in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• flos in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • the prime of youthful vigour: flos aetatis
    
  • the perfume exhaled by flowers: odores, qui efflantur e floribus
    
  • (ambiguous) flowers of rhetoric; embellishments of style: lumina, flores dicendi (De Or. 3. 25. 96)
    
  • (ambiguous) a glorious expanse of flowers: laetissimi flores (Verr. 4. 48. 107)
    

• floss
• flous
• flouse

From Arabic فلوس (fulūs, “money”).

• IPA^(key): /fluːs/

flos ?

1. (slang) money

• Slangopedia