purple milk vetch

9.9

A plant that lives for many years with clusters of purple flowers

noun

: vicia púrpura

The hillside was covered in blooming purple milk vetch during spring.

Examples

She admired a cluster of purple milk vetch growing near the old stone wall.
The purple milk vetch blooms beautifully in spring.
Botanists recorded the presence of purple milk vetch in the region's grasslands.
I saw a purple milk vetch in the garden yesterday.
The hillside was covered in blooming purple milk vetch during spring.
She admired a cluster of purple milk vetch growing near the old stone wall.
Botanists recorded the presence of purple milk vetch in the region's grasslands.

Synonyms

Astragalus danicus

vspurple milk vetch

Specialized

9.9

A plant that lives for many years with tight groups of purple flowers native to Europe

is the common name while the other is the scientific label

Surface Forms

purple milk vetch singular

purple milk vetches plural

Morphology

purple + milk + vetch

This is a straightforward adjectival color + noun compound: 'purple' modifies a plant name ('milk vetch'), so a learner who knows the words will infer it is a kind of vetch that is purple. Although 'milk vetch' is a specific plant name, the overall composition (color + plant) follows common, cross-linguistic patterns and thus is immediately comprehensible to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Purple milk vetch is a simple descriptive name: purple shows the flower color and milk vetch is the common name for plants in this group. One popular story says 'milk' comes from farmers feeding the plant to cows or from a milky sap, so the whole name helps you picture a vetch plant with dense purple flowers.