Flora wasborrowed from the name of the Roman goddess of flowers, derived from Latin 'flōs' (flower), and applied to plant life by Linnaeus in 1745.
Definition
The plants of a particular region, habitat, or geological period; also used as a proper name for the Roman goddess of flowers.
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Latin18th centurywell-attested
From Latin "Flōra," the Roman goddess of flowers, spring, and fertility, derived from "flōs" (genitive "flōris") meaning "flower." The Latin traces to Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₃- ("to bloom, to flower, to thrive"), a root that generated an extraordinary family of words across the Indo-European languages. The PIE root passed into Proto-Germanic as *blōaną ("to bloom"), yielding Old
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The pairing 'flora and fauna' (plants and animals) became standard scientific vocabulary in the 18th century. 'Fauna' wascoined on the model of 'Flora,' named after the Roman woodland god Faunus, to create a symmetrical pair.
"flora" as the scientific term for the plant life of a region. This usage spread rapidly through European scientific communities, displacing older descriptive terms. Key roots: flōs (Latin: "flower, blossom"), *bʰleh₃- (Proto-Indo-European: "to bloom, to flower").