butter-and-eggs

8.6

A plant from Europe with bright yellow and orange flowers often seen as a weed

noun

: linaria

The bright yellow and orange flowers of butter-and-eggs attract many pollinators in summer.

Examples

Gardeners often find butter-and-eggs difficult to remove because it spreads quickly.
The meadow was full of butter-and-eggs blooming among the wild grasses.
The garden was filled with beautiful butter-and-eggs plants.
Have you seen the butter-and-eggs blooming this spring?
The bright yellow and orange flowers of butter-and-eggs attract many pollinators in summer.
Gardeners often find butter-and-eggs difficult to remove because it spreads quickly.
The meadow was full of butter-and-eggs blooming among the wild grasses.

Synonyms

Linaria vulgaris

vsbutter-and-eggs

Specialized

8.6

A small plant with bright yellow and orange flowers that often grows wild and spreads quickly

is a familiar common name used in everyday speech rather than formal term

toadflax

vsbutter-and-eggs

9.7

A small plant with yellow and orange flowers often seen as a weed

is the regional colloquial name used instead of scientific labels

wild snapdragon

vsbutter-and-eggs

7.0

A plant with bright yellow and orange flowers that grows wild and can be a weed

is the traditional folk name highlighting resemblance to a different flower

devil's flax

vsbutter-and-eggs

9.9

A wild plant with yellow and orange flowers that spreads quickly in fields and roadsides

is a neutral descriptive name without the negative or vivid connotations

Surface Forms

butter-and-eggs singular

butter-and-eggs plural

Morphology

butter-and-eggs = butter + and + egg (semi-transparent) = butter + and + egg + and

The compound's components are literal and visible ('butter' + 'and' + 'eggs'), but the use as the name of a specific plant is an arbitrary common-name metaphor that learners cannot reliably predict.

Etymology

Butter-and-eggs comes from the two simple words butter and eggs, because the flower's bright yellow and orange colours look like butter and egg yolks. So, the name butter-and-eggs helps you remember a common yellow-and-orange wild plant.