granny's bonnets
- noun
- UK
:
aguileña
- The garden was filled with clusters of granny's bonnets in full bloom.
Examples
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She planted granny's bonnets along the path for a splash of color in spring.
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Collectors especially love the unique shapes of granny's bonnets for floral arrangements.
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I planted some granny's bonnets in my garden this spring.
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Have you seen the granny's bonnets blooming in the park?
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The garden was filled with clusters of granny's bonnets in full bloom.
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She planted granny's bonnets along the path for a splash of color in spring.
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Have you seen the granny's bonnets blooming in the park?
Synonyms
33
9.5
A garden plant with spurred, colorful flowers that often grows in mountains
A garden plant with short-spurred flowers in many colors
Surface Forms
Morphology
granny's + bonnets
The components 'granny's' (grandmother) and 'bonnets' (small hats) evoke a figurative image—flowers that look like old-fashioned bonnets—but they do not directly state 'a flower' or identify the species. The name is metaphorically motivated and gives a partial cue about shape, yet mapping that cue to a specific plant (Aquilegia) requires prior lexical or cultural knowledge, so it is not fully transparent.
Etymology
Granny's bonnets may come from the flower's shape: the hanging petals and small tail-like spurs make it look like the tiny, old-fashioned bonnets a granny might wear. That's why the name now refers to this kind of 'flower'.