Persian lilac
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7.0
- noun
- Many southern homes plant Persian lilac trees for their decorative flowers and ample shade.
Examples
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The garden featured a beautiful Persian lilac in full bloom near the entrance.
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The Persian lilac blooms beautifully in spring.
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Birds flocked to the Persian lilac, despite its fruits being inedible to humans.
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Look at that Persian lilac!
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Many southern homes plant Persian lilac trees for their decorative flowers and ample shade.
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The garden featured a beautiful Persian lilac in full bloom near the entrance.
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The Persian lilac blooms beautifully in spring.
Synonyms
21
1.6
A bush with small fragrant purple, pink, or white flowers in large groups
1
7.9
A shrub or small tree with clusters of fragrant lilac flowers
A small branching shrub from Asia with narrow leaves and fragrant lilac flowers
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a straightforward adjective + color noun combination: 'lilac' names a pale purple color and 'Persian' simply indicates a variant or origin, so the overall meaning — a pale purple shade associated with the Persian lilac — is directly derivable from its parts. Adjective+color constructions like this are common cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily understand the MWE.
Etymology
Persian lilac comes from the idea that the soft purple lilac flowers were linked long ago to Persia; the shrub grows clusters of pale purple, often sweet-smelling blooms. So the name means 'a decorative tree or bush with pale purple flowers'.