butterfly orchid
- noun
- /ˈbʌtərˌflaɪ ˈɔrkɪd/
:
orquídea mariposa
- The butterfly orchid in her garden blooms with vibrant colors each spring.
Examples
-
She bends to her special beauty, the butterfly orchid she smuggled back from Hawaii two years ago.
Fiction book (1995) -
Those plants include the butterfly orchid and the celestial lily.
Academic text (1996) -
When she calms herself, she finds she has snipped her prize butterfly orchid.
Fiction book (1995) -
Artists often draw inspiration from the delicate shape of the butterfly orchid's petals.
-
He carefully transported the butterfly orchid to ensure it would survive the long journey.
Synonyms
106
3.9
A plant with unusual colorful flowers that often last a long time
A flowering plant with colorful, often fragrant flowers that look like butterflies
An orchid with colorful flowers that look like a butterfly
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound 'butterfly orchid' is compositionally built from 'butterfly' (a colorful winged insect) modifying 'orchid' (a flowering plant), so it denotes an orchid whose flowers resemble or evoke butterflies; a B1 learner who knows both words can readily infer this. This modifier+head pattern describing appearance is common cross-linguistically and follows ordinary English compounding rules, making the expression transparent.
Etymology
The name butterfly orchid comes from the flower's shape: its petals spread like wings so the flower looks like a small butterfly. So the name now means an orchid with 'butterfly-like' flowers.