red maids
- noun
- US
:
flor de maíz
- The bright blossoms of red maids add cheerful color to desert gardens in spring.
Examples
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After the winter rains, red maids often form a thick carpet over the sandy soil.
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Botanists identified the plant as red maids during their field survey in Arizona.
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The red maids bloomed beautifully in the garden.
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Do you see the red maids along the pathway?
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The bright blossoms of red maids add cheerful color to desert gardens in spring.
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After the winter rains, red maids often form a thick carpet over the sandy soil.
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Botanists identified the plant as red maids during their field survey in Arizona.
Synonyms
A low-growing plant with thick leaves and small bright pink flowers from the southwestern United States
A low plant with thick leaves that forms a green carpet and has small bright pink flowers
Surface Forms
Morphology
red + maids
The constituents 'red' (a color) and 'maids' (young women/servants) do not compose to a meaning of 'a succulent plant,' so a B1 learner who knows the parts would not predict this botanical sense. Plant names occasionally use human nouns metaphorically, but that pattern is not regular or transparent enough for learners to infer the meaning without prior exposure.
Etymology
The noun red maids likely comes from the plant's small, bright flowers that look like tiny women in red dresses or little red spots across the ground. People pictured these as little maids, so the name came to mean this low-growing plant with bright red blooms.
