white fritillary
- noun
- US
:
fritilaria blanca
- Botanists often seek the white fritillary because of its distinctive bell-shaped flowers.
Examples
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Several white fritillaries bloomed in the shade by the creek this spring.
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In California, the white fritillary is admired for its delicate beauty and pale coloring.
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Look! A white fritillary!
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The white fritillary blooms beautifully in spring.
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In California, the white fritillary is admired for its delicate beauty and pale coloring.
-
Botanists often seek the white fritillary because of its distinctive bell-shaped flowers.
-
Several white fritillaries bloomed in the shade by the creek this spring.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a straightforward adjective + noun composition: 'white' describes the color of a 'fritillary', so the meaning is directly derivable from the constituents. Color + noun combinations are a highly regular, cross-linguistic pattern, making this immediately comprehensible to a B1 learner who knows both words.
Etymology
White fritillary gets its name from white (its pale color) and fritillary, an old word for a 'dice box' people used because many fritillary flowers have a checkered pattern, and that image stuck to the group. So the name helps you picture a pale, bell-shaped flower that belongs to the fritillary type.
