The Etymology of Laurel
Laurel carries a great deal of Mediterranean symbolism in a small word. The Latin laurus named the evergreen tree Laurus nobilis, native to the Mediterranean basin and sacred to Apollo. Greek and Roman athletic tradition crowned victors at the Pythian Games — held at Apollo's shrine at Delphi — with wreaths of its leaves, and Roman generals wore laurel crowns in their triumphal processions. The Latin word itself is of pre-Latin origin, almost certainly absorbed from a Mediterranean substrate language whose deeper origin is unrecoverable. From Latin laurus, Vulgar Latin formed *laurārius, which became Old French lorier and Middle English laurer, then laurel. The cultural metaphor travelled with the plant: a poet laureate is a poet wearing the laurel, the surname Lawrence comes from Laurentum (an ancient Italian town probably named for its laurel groves), and the idiom to rest on one's laurels — to coast on past success — preserves the original athletic image of the victor sitting down with his wreath after the race.