mountain lady's slipper
- noun
- /ˈmaʊntən ˈleɪdiz ˈslɪpər/
- US
:
zapato de dama de montaña
- The mountain lady's slipper blooms in late spring along shaded forest trails.
Examples
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She photographed a rare mountain lady's slipper during her hike in the Cascade Range.
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Botanists are concerned about declining populations of the mountain lady's slipper in its native habitats.
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The mountain lady's slipper is a rare flower.
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I saw a beautiful mountain lady's slipper in the forest.
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Botanists are concerned about declining populations of the mountain lady's slipper in its native habitats.
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She photographed a rare mountain lady's slipper during her hike in the Cascade Range.
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The mountain lady's slipper blooms in late spring along shaded forest trails.
Synonyms
A wild lady's slipper orchid with white and purple flowers that grows in northwest North America
Surface Forms
Morphology
mountain + lady's + slipper
This is a conventional common name for a specific plant (an orchid) whose referent cannot be predicted from the literal meanings of 'mountain', 'lady's', and 'slipper'. While 'mountain' suggests habitat and 'slipper' evokes a shape metaphor, the specific identification as a wild orchid is lexicalized and would not be inferable to a B1 learner who only knows the constituent words.
Etymology
Mountain lady's slipper gets its name from the flower's shape and where it lives. The lower petal makes a small pocket that looks like a 'slipper' or 'shoe', so people called it lady's slipper, and mountain was added because this orchid grows in mountain forests, so the name points to a wild orchid that looks like a little shoe and lives in the mountains.
