spurge laurel
- noun
- Specialized
:
laurel espurio
- The woodland was thick with spurge laurel, its glossy leaves gleaming in the shade.
Examples
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She planted a spurge laurel in her garden to add some evergreen color year-round.
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Due to its toxicity, spurge laurel should be handled with care, especially around pets.
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The spurge laurel thrives in shaded areas.
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Many gardeners appreciate the spurge laurel for its glossy leaves.
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The woodland was thick with spurge laurel, its glossy leaves gleaming in the shade.
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She planted a spurge laurel in her garden to add some evergreen color year-round.
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Due to its toxicity, spurge laurel should be handled with care, especially around pets.
Synonyms
A bush with shiny thick leaves and small yellow-green flowers often found in woods
A bush with shiny leaves and yellow-green flowers in spring
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound simply combines two plant nouns so a learner who knows 'spurge' (a type of plant) and 'laurel' (an evergreen plant) can infer it names a spurge that is laurel-like — i.e. a shrub with glossy evergreen leaves. Plant-name compounds follow a transparent, compositional pattern cross-linguistically, so the specific shrub meaning is derivable from its constituents.
Etymology
Spurge laurel may come from two simple ideas: spurge for plants that have a milky sap that can make you sick, and laurel because its shiny leaves look like laurel leaves. So the name gives a picture of a bush that looks like a laurel but is 'poisonous', which is why people say to handle spurge laurel with care.
