blossom

English

Etymology

From Middle English blosme, from Old English blostm, blostma, from Proto-Germanic *blōsmaz (compare West Frisian blossem, Dutch bloesem), an enlargement of *blōstaz (compare German Blust), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₃-s- (“bloom, flower”), from *bʰleh₃- (“to bloom, to thrive”). Cognate with Albanian bleron (“to blossom, to thrive”), Latin flōs (“flower”), Flōra (“goddess of plants”). See more at blow (etymology 4).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈblɒ.səm/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈblɑ.səm/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• Rhymes: -ɒsəm, -ɑsəm
• Hyphenation: blos‧som

Noun

blossom (countable and uncountable, plural blossoms)

1. A flower, especially one indicating that a fruit tree is fruiting; (collectively) a mass of such flowers.

   The blossom has come early this year.

   • 1560, [William Whittingham et al., transl.], The Bible and Holy Scriptures Conteyned in the Olde and Newe Testament.  (the Geneva Bible), Geneva: Rouland Hall, →OCLC, Nombers XVII:8, folio 70, recto:

     And when Moſes on the morowe went into the Tabernacle of the Teſtimonie, beholde, the rod of Aarón for the houſe of Leuí was budded, and broght forthe buddes, & broght forthe bloſſoms & bare ripe almondes.

   • 1711 March 16, Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, editors, The Spectator, volume I, number 16, London: Printed for S[amuel] Buckley, at the Dolphin in Little-Britain; and J[acob] Tonson, at Shakespear's-Head over-against Catherine-street in the Strand, →OCLC, page 89:

     Foppiſh and fantaſtick Ornaments are only Indications of Vice, not criminal in themſelves. Extinguiſh Vanity in the Mind, and you naturally retrench the little Superfluities of Garniture and Equipage. The Bloſſoms will fall of themſelves, when the Root that nouriſhes them is deſtroyed.

   • 1818, [Mary Shelley], chapter III, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. , volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, →OCLC:

     Winter, spring, and summer passed away during my labours; but I did not watch the blossom or the expanding leaves—sights which before always yielded me supreme delight—so deeply was I engrossed in my occupation.

2. The state or season of producing such flowers.

   The orchard is in blossom.

   • 1919 October, John Galsworthy, chapter I, in Saint’s Progress, London: William Heinemann, published December 1919, →OCLC, part III, 1 §, page 217:

     Down by the River Wye, among plum-trees in blossom, Noel had laid her baby in a hammock, and stood reading a letter: [...]

3. (figurative) A blooming period or stage of development; something lovely that gives rich promise.
   • c. 1619–1622, Philip Massinger, “A Very Woman”, in Three New Playes: viz. The Bashful Lover, Guardian, Very Woman. As They have been Often Acted at the Private-house in Black-Friers, by His Late Majesties Servants, with Great Applause, London: Printed for Humphrey Moseley, and are to be sold at his shop at the sign of the Prince's Arms in St. Pauls Church-yard, published 1655, →OCLC, act IV, scene iii; republished as W[illiam] Gifford, editor, The Plays of Philip Massinger, in Four Volumes. With Notes Critical and Explanatory, volume IV, London: Printed for G[eorge] and W[illiam] Nicol [et al.] by W[illiam] Bulmer and Co., Cleveland-Row, St. James's, 1805, →OCLC, page 317:

     This beauty, in the blossom of my youth, / When my first fire knew no adulterate incense, / Nor I no way to flatter, but my fondness; / [...] long did I love this lady, / Long was my travail, long my trade to win her; / With all the duty of my soul, I served her.

4. The colour of a horse that has white hairs intermixed with sorrel and bay hairs.
   • 1834–1847, Robert Southey, “A Feeble Attempt to Describe the Physical and Moral Qualities of Nobs”, in John Wood Warter, editor, The Doctor, &c., London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green and Longman, →OCLC; new edition, London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1862, →OCLC, page 358, column 2:

     For colour he [Nobs, a horse] was neither black-bay, brown-bay, dapple-bay, black-grey, iron-grey, sad-grey, branded-grey, sandy-grey, dapple-grey, silver-grey, dun, mouse-dun, flea-backed, flea-bitten, rount, blossom, roan, pye-bald, rubican, sorrel, cow-coloured sorrel, bright sorrel, burnt sorrel, starling-colour, tyger-colour, wolf-colour, deer-colour, cream-colour, white, grey, or black. Neither was he green, like the horse which the Emperor [Septimus] Severus took from the Parthians, [...]

Alternative forms

• blasom (Jamaican English)

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

blossom (third-person singular simple present blossoms, present participle blossoming, simple past and past participle blossomed)

1. (intransitive) To have, or open into, blossoms; to bloom.
   • 1560, [William Whittingham et al., transl.], The Bible and Holy Scriptures Conteyned in the Olde and Newe Testament.  (the Geneva Bible), Geneva: Rouland Hall, →OCLC, Nombers XVII:1–2 and 5, folio 70, recto:

     And the Lord ſpake vnto Moſés, ſaying, / Speake vnto the childrẽ of Iſraél, & take of euerie one of them a rod, after y^e houſe of their fathers, of all their princes according to the familie of their fathers, euen twelue rods: and thou ſhalt write euerie mans name vpon his rod. […] And the mans rod, whome I choſe, ſhall bloſſom: and I wil make ceaſe from me the grudgings of the children of Iſraél, which grudge againſt you.

   • 1851 June 22, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, edited by H. G. O. Blake, Summer: From the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau, London: T. Fisher Unwin, 26 Paternoster Square E.C., published 1884, page 210:

     The Utricularia vulgaris or bladder-wort, a yellow pea-like flower, has blossomed in stagnant pools.

2. (intransitive) To begin to thrive or flourish.
   • 1869, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, “Gossip”, in Little Women: , part second, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, →OCLC, page 5:

     A quiet, studious man, rich in the wisdom that is better than learning, the charity which calls all mankind "brother," the piety that blossoms into character, making it august and lovely.

   • 1961 January 30, Rico Lebrun, “New Haven · Capri · Rome (1958–1960) ”, in James Renner, David Lebrun, editors, In the Meridian of the Heart: Selected Letters of Rico Lebrun, Boston, Mass.: David R. Godine, Publisher, published 2000, →ISBN, page 66:

     Since I came back from Pomona I have done many drawings to illustrate the Inferno of Dante [Alighieri] and I find my old Italian love blossoming all over again for this greatest of all master poets, bar none.

Synonyms

• (have, or open into, blossoms): bloom, come into bloom, come into blossom, flower
• (begin to thrive or flourish): bloom, flourish, grow, prosper, thrive

Translations

Further reading

• blossom on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Middle English

Noun

blossom

1. Alternative form of blosme