yellow adder's tongue
- noun
- /ˈjɛloʊ ˈædərz tʌŋ/
- Specialized
:
lengua de adder amarilla
- While hiking in the spring, we spotted several yellow adder's tongue blooming by the creek.
Examples
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The botanist collected a specimen of yellow adder's tongue for her research.
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Many gardeners appreciate yellow adder's tongue for its delicate yellow flowers and attractive foliage.
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I saw a beautiful yellow adder's tongue blooming in the forest.
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Have you ever spotted a yellow adder's tongue in the wild?
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Many gardeners appreciate yellow adder's tongue for its delicate yellow flowers and attractive foliage.
-
While hiking in the spring, we spotted several yellow adder's tongue blooming by the creek.
-
The botanist collected a specimen of yellow adder's tongue for her research.
Synonyms
A small eastern North American lily with yellow flowers and leaves with dark spots
A small North American woodland flower with nodding yellow blooms and speckled leaves
A spring wildflower in eastern North America with single yellow flowers spotted with brown or purple
Surface Forms
Morphology
The parts 'yellow' + 'adder's' + 'tongue' transparently signal a yellow object evocative of a snake's (adder's) tongue, so learners can infer colour and shape-related imagery from the constituents. However the fact that the phrase is a specialized botanical name referring to a plant (a flower) is not directly derivable and could be misinterpreted as literally the tongue of a snake, so the overall meaning is only partially predictable.
Etymology
Yellow adder's tongue may come from the plant's look: its small yellow flower and long spotted leaves reminded people of an adder's tongue, like the thin tongue of a 'snake'. That's why the name now refers to this yellow 'flowering plant'.
