Benjamin bush
- noun
- Specialized
:
bush de Benjamin
- I admired the yellow flowers blooming on the old Benjamin bush near the fence.
Examples
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The Benjamin bush filled the air with its distinctive fragrance in late spring.
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I planted a Benjamin bush in my garden last year.
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Gardeners often plant Benjamin bush for its bright berries and aromatic foliage.
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The Benjamin bush blooms beautifully in the spring.
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Gardeners often plant Benjamin bush for its bright berries and aromatic foliage.
-
I admired the yellow flowers blooming on the old Benjamin bush near the fence.
-
The Benjamin bush filled the air with its distinctive fragrance in late spring.
Synonyms
A shrub with fragrant leaves and bark, yellow flowers, and red or yellow berries
A small bush that loses its leaves each year with strong-smelling leaves, yellow flowers, and red or yellow berries
A small bush from eastern North America with leaves that have a strong smell and red or yellow berries
A small shrub with fragrant leaves, yellow flowers, and red or yellow berries
A shrub with fragrant leaves, flowers, and red berries
Surface Forms
Morphology
Benjamin + bush
The constituent 'bush' clearly signals a plant/shrub, so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer this is a kind of bush. However, 'Benjamin' is a proper name with no descriptive lexical meaning, so the specific botanical properties (deciduous, aromatic leaves, yellow/ scarlet berries) are not derivable from the parts. This makes the expression partially transparent: the general category is clear but the detailed meaning is not predictable without prior knowledge.
Etymology
Benjamin bush may come from a person called Benjamin who first grew or sold the plant, so people began to call it 'Benjamin's bush'. That's why Benjamin bush today means a small, scented bush with bright berries.
