spring beauty
- noun
- /sprɪŋ ˈbjuːti/
- US
:
belleza primaveral
- In early spring, the garden was filled with blooming spring beauty flowers, showcasing their delicate pink and white petals.
Examples
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While hiking in the woods, we spotted spring beauty among the underbrush, its small, bowl-shaped flowers standing out beautifully.
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Several hours later, she had identified the little pink flowers—Claytonia virginica, or "spring beauty"—and discovered who Lady Skipwith was.
Fiction book (1992) -
The children were excited to find spring beauty flowers as they explored the nature trail, marveling at their unusual shape and color.
Synonyms
A small plant with two thick leaves, a stem of pink or white bowl-shaped flowers, and an edible bulb
A small spring wildflower with white flowers often with pink lines
A small wild plant that comes back every year with low thick leaves and small white flowers with pink edges
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound combines 'spring' (the season) + 'beauty' (a lovely thing), so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer it denotes something beautiful associated with spring—most likely a flower or springtime plant. While detailed botanical features (edible corm, specific species) are not predictable from the parts, the overall referent is compositionally clear and therefore transparently interpretable.
Etymology
Spring beauty is the name of a small wildflower that appears early in spring and has small, pretty flowers, so people called the little plant a beauty.
