Plant epithet

Plant epithets may be pejorative, used humorously and sometimes offensively. Some plant epithets are used directly as insults, as when people are called turnips, potatoes, or cabbages. When the England football team lost to Sweden under Graham Taylor, The Sun newspaper led with the headline "Swedes 2 Turnips 1", swede being a pun on a particular vegetable, and turnip being an insult.{{cite book |title=England: The Official F.A History |author=Edworthy, Niall |publisher=Virgin |date=1997 |isbn=1-85227-699-1 |page=149}}

In English, the collective term vegetable is also pejorative. Plant epithets are used around the world, but the choice of plants and their meanings vary. Thus in China, "stupid melon" is used as an insult.{{cite web |last=Dunlop |first=Fuchsia |title=You turnip! Vegetable insults around the world |url=http://www.fuchsiadunlop.com/you-turnip-vegetable-insults-around-the-world/ |access-date=25 July 2016}} In Britain, coconut is sometimes used by black people to insult other people of colour; the term indicates betrayal, as coconuts are brown on the outside but white on the inside.{{cite news |last=Grice |first=Elizabeth |title=Was it necessary to turn an insult involving coconuts into a criminal prosecution? |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7862137/Was-it-necessary-to-turn-an-insult-involving-coconuts-into-a-criminal-prosecution.html |access-date=25 July 2016 |agency=Daily Telegraph |date=30 June 2010}} Trembling or quaking like an aspen leaf means shaking with fear; this may be descriptive or pejorative, and is recorded from around 1700 onwards, starting with Edward Taylor's Poems.{{cite book |last=Whiting |first=Bartlett Jere |title=Early American Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases |url=https://archive.org/details/earlyamericanpro0000whit |url-access=registration |year=1977 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-21981-6 |page=[https://archive.org/details/earlyamericanpro0000whit/page/13 13]}} In 2022, the British prime minister Liz Truss was described as "Lettuce Liz"{{cite news |last=Raycraft |first=Molly |title=Lettuce Liz Hacked by Mad Vlad (print version), Lettuce Liz Truss had phone hacked by Putin's spies leaving world on veg of crisis (web version) |work=Daily Star |date=29 October 2022 |quote=[Subtitle:] It's beyond be-leaf but Vladimir Putin's spies hacked wet lettuce's phone during the Tory leadership campaign for Russia to gain access to sensitive security information, according to sources}} and "The Iceberg Lady",{{efn|"Iceberg" is a type of lettuce.{{cite news |title=Iceberg Lettuce |date=3 July 2007 |author=Renna |work=Chicago Tribune |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2007-07-04-0706290893-story.html |access-date=22 June 2011}}}} her short term in office compared unfavourably to the shelf life of a head of lettuce.{{cite news |last1=Anon |title=The Iceberg Lady: Liz Truss has made Britain a riskier bet for bond investors |url=https://www.economist.com/leaders/2022/10/11/liz-truss-has-made-britain-a-riskier-bet-for-bond-investors |access-date=30 October 2022 |newspaper=The Economist |date=11 October 2022 |quote=Take away the ten days of mourning after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, and she had seven days in control. That is roughly the shelf-life of a lettuce.}}{{cite news |last=Victor |first=Daniel |title=The Lettuce Outlasts Liz Truss |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/19/world/europe/liz-truss-lettuce-stream.html |access-date=20 October 2022 |work=The New York Times|date=19 October 2022 |archive-date=19 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221019231613/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/19/world/europe/liz-truss-lettuce-stream.html |url-status=live }}{{cite news |last=Maher |first=Bron |title=Daily Star lettuce: Editor says 'we're 'not anti-Tory, we're anti-idiot' |url=https://pressgazette.co.uk/daily-star-lettuce/ |access-date=20 October 2022 |work=Press Gazette|date=20 October 2022}}

In contrast to vegetable epithets, flower and tree names are generally positive. "English rose" has traditionally been used to describe an attractive English woman with a fair complexion. An early documented usage is in Basil Hood's 1902 comic opera Merrie England,{{cite book |editor-last1=Dent |editor-first1=Susie |title=Brewer's dictionary of phrase & fable |date=2012 |publisher=Chambers |isbn=978-0-550-10245-4 |page=445 |edition=19th}} while in modern times, the actress Gemma Arterton has been so described.

Flower and tree names are used in many countries for girls; examples in English include Bryony, Daisy, Iris, Hazel, Heather, Holly, Hyacinth, Jasmine, Lily, Rose, and Violet. Forms of the generic term flower are also popular in English as in other languages, including for example Fleur, Flora, Florence and Flores.{{cite web|title=Flower Names for Girls and Boys|url=http://www.parents.com/baby-names/flower-girl-and-boy/|access-date=25 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160710121242/http://www.parents.com/baby-names/flower-girl-and-boy/|archive-date=10 July 2016|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|title=Girl Flower Names|url=http://www.top-100-baby-names-search.com/girl-flower-names.html|access-date=25 July 2016}} English flower names are less common for boys, but include Hawthorn; in the form of May, the same flower is used as a girl's name.{{cite web |title=May Names |url=http://www.britishbabynames.com/blog/2012/05/may-names.html |publisher=British Baby Names |access-date=25 July 2016}} Laurel, for a victor's wreath made of the sweet bay or laurel, with feminine forms such as Laura, is used for both boys and girls.{{cite web|title=Laurel|url=http://www.babynames.co.uk/names/laurel/|access-date=27 July 2016}}

People acquired plant surnames in the Middle Ages for different reasons. Toponymic surnames were given to people who lived by a significant feature such as a large isolated tree, a group of trees, or a wood: or, very often, in a village beside such a feature. Metonymic surnames, on the other hand, denoted a person's profession, and include Pease, for a seller of peas,{{sfn|Reaney|Wilson|1997|p=343}} and Onions, for a seller of onions (though some people with that surname got it from the Old Welsh name Enniaum).{{sfn|Reaney|Wilson|1997|p=330}}

File:Robert Plant at the Palace Theatre, Manchester.jpg, lead singer of Led Zeppelin. The surname may be metonymic for a gardener or toponymic for an orchard or a town in France.]]

Plant or Plante itself may be a metonym (gardener), as with Plantebene (a grower of beans, 1199) and Planterose (a grower of roses, 1221), a metaphor meaning a branch of a family, or a toponym, as with de la Plaunt (1273) and de Plantes (1275, 1282), from a place in France such as le Plantis (Orne), or from a planted place such as a vineyard or orchard.{{Cite book |last1=Hanks |first1=Patrick |last2=Coates |first2=Richard |last3=McClure |first3=Peter |date=2016 |title=The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-967776-4}}{{cite web |title=Last Name: Plant |url=http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Plant |publisher=The Internet Surname Database}}{{sfn|Reaney|Wilson|1997|p=354}}

Toponymic surnames include Oak, with variants such as Oake, Oke, Oakes, Noke and Roke since 1273,{{cite web |title=Last name: Oak |url=http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Oak |publisher=The Internet Surname Database |access-date=25 July 2016}}{{sfn|Reaney|Wilson|1997|p=327}} Ash, with variations such as Ashe, Asche, Aish, Esch and Nash since 1221,{{cite web |title=Last Name: Ash |url=http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Ash |publisher=The Internet Surname Database |access-date=25 July 2016}}{{sfn|Reaney|Wilson|1997|p=15}} and Birch or Birchwood, since 1182.{{sfn|Reaney|Wilson|1997|p=45}} Hazel is recorded in many toponymic surnames (sometimes via villages named for the tree), including Hazel itself from 1182, Hazelwood/Aizlewood, Hazelton, Hazelhurst, Hazelgrove, Hazelden and Heseltine.{{sfn|Reaney|Wilson|1997|pp=223–224}} Surnames such as Hollies and Hollin(g)s, since 1275, mean a person who lived by a holly or holm oak tree.{{sfn|Reaney|Wilson|1997|pp=235–236}} Surnames such as Plumtree, Plumpton, and Plumstead denote people who lived in places by a plum tree or orchard.{{sfn|Reaney|Wilson|1997|p=355}}{{sfn|Mills|1993|p=260}} Similarly, Appleby, Appleton, Applegarth and Appleyard name people who lived by an apple orchard, or in villages in Cheshire, Cumbria, Kent and Yorkshire which were named for their apple orchards.{{sfn|Reaney|Wilson|1997|pp=12–13}} Surnames including Apps, Asp, Epps and Hesp record that a person lived by an aspen tree, the letters often being swapped over.{{sfn|Reaney|Wilson|1997|p=13}}

A third source of plant names is their use as emblems, as in the surnames Rose, Royce, and Pluckrose, all meaning a person who used the rose as their family emblem.{{sfn|Reaney|Wilson|1997|p=383}} The English royal Plantagenet dynasty appears to have derived its name from the use of a sprig of broom or planta genista as an emblem. "Plantegenest" (or "Plante Genest") was a 12th-century nickname for Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou and duke of Normandy; Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York adopted Plantagenet as his family name in the 15th century, perhaps to emphasise his status as a patrilineal descendant of Geoffrey.{{cite journal |url=http://cogprints.org/5986/ |title=The Tardy Adoption of the Plantagenet Surname |last=Plant |first=John S. |journal=Nomina |year=2007 |volume=30 |issn=0141-6340 |pages=57–84}}{{cite book |title=Encyclopedia of the Wars of the Roses |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediawars00wagn |url-access=limited |last=Wagner |first=John |year=2001 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=1-85109-358-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediawars00wagn/page/n245 206]}}

File:Lindgren 1960.jpg author Astrid Lindgren is named for the Lime or Linden tree.]]

Plant surnames are found in other languages. For example, in Sweden, where "Lind" means the Lime or Linden tree, the 100 most common surnames in 2015 included at 17 Lindberg (Lime-hill), at 21 Lindström (Lime-stream), at 22 Lindqvist (Lime-twig), at 23 Lindgren (Lime-branch), and at 99 Lindholm (Lime-island). Other tree names in the top 100 were 46 Björk (Birch), 56 Löfgren (Leaf-branch), 66 Björklund (Birchwood), 77 Ekström (Oak-stream), 79 Hedlund (Heathwood) and 87 Ek (Oak).{{cite web |title=Efternamn, topp 100 (2015) |url=http://www.scb.se/sv_/Hitta-statistik/Statistik-efter-amne/Befolkning/Amnesovergripande-statistik/Namnstatistik/30898/30905/Samtliga-folkbokforda--Efternamn-topplistor/31063/ |publisher=Statistiska centralbyrån (Statistics Sweden) |access-date=26 July 2016 |language=Swedish |date=22 February 2016}} Many of these names are toponymic; however, suffixes like -gren and -qvist are often metaphorical, meaning an offshoot of a family.{{cite book |last1=Bergman |first1=Gösta |title=Kortfattad svensk språkhistoria |date=1988 |publisher=Prisma |pages=217– |language=Swedish}} From around 1686, Swedish soldiers started to adopt military surnames; short monosyllabic tree-names like Al (Alder), Alm (Elm) and Ek (Oak) were popular.{{cite web |last1=Högman |first1=Hans |title=Svenskt namnskick i gångna tider |url=http://www.hhogman.se/namnskick_sv.htm |access-date=26 July 2016 |date=23 February 2016}}

In France, the surnames Laplante (the plant) and Levigne (the vine) denote the owner of a vineyard, or may be toponymic.{{cite web |title=Patronyme Laplante : Nom de famille |url=http://www.genealogie.com/nom-de-famille/Laplante.html |publisher=Genealogie.com |access-date=27 July 2016 |language=French}}{{cite web |title=Patronyme Levigne : Nom de famille |url=http://www.genealogie.com/nom-de-famille/Levigne.html |publisher=Genealogie.com |access-date=27 July 2016 |language=French}} Tree names also occur in France, where for example the surname Chene (oak) is not uncommon in Loire-Atlantique and Maine-et-Loire.{{cite web |title=Tout savoir sur le nom Chene |url=http://www.genealogie.com/nom-de-famille/Chene.html |publisher=Genealogie.com |access-date=27 July 2016}}

• Animal epithet

{{notelist}}

{{reflist|30em}}

• {{cite book |last1=Mills |first1=A. D. |title=A Dictionary of English Place-Names |date=1993 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-192-83131-3}}
• {{cite book |last1=Reaney |first1=P. H. |last2=Wilson |first2=R. M. |title=A Dictionary of English Surnames |date=1997 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-198-60092-5 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofengl0000rean}}

{{Personal names}}

Category:Pejorative terms for people

Category:Plants in culture

Category:Onomastics

Category:Biology and culture