water violet

9.1

A plant that grows in shallow water with leaves below and on the surface and violet flowers

noun

: violeta de agua

The garden was beautiful, with water violets blooming beside the pond.

Examples

I spotted a water violet while walking along the riverbank in spring.
In the wetlands, the water violets added vibrant color to the scenery.
Bladderwort and water violets swayed on their delicate antenna-like stems.

Fiction book (1998)

Synonyms

Hottonia palustris

vswater violet

9.9

A water plant with feathery underwater leaves and violet flowers

is the common English name rather than the scientific designation

featherfoil

vswater violet

9.9

A water plant with thin feathery leaves that grows in ponds and streams

focuses more on the plant's violet flowers and submerged and floating leaves

feather-foil

vswater violet

9.9

A small water plant with thin leaves that look like feathers

is the identical term spelled or punctuated differently

Hottonia

vswater violet

Specialized

9.9

A small water plant with delicate flowers that grows in ponds and lakes

is a single species within that genus not the whole group

water gillyflower

vswater violet

9.9

A water plant with soft spongy stems full of air and white flowers

is a European and western Asian plant with violet flowers and different submerged leaves

Surface Forms

water violet singular

water violets plural

Morphology

water + violet

The compound 'water violet' is a simple noun–noun composition where 'water' modifies 'violet', so a learner who knows both words can infer it denotes a violet that grows in or is associated with water (an aquatic violet). This follows a common, transparent attributive pattern in English and is cross-linguistically plausible, making the meaning directly derivable from the constituents.

Etymology

Water violet comes from a simple image: the plant grows in water and has small violet flowers above the surface. So the name means 'a water plant with violet flowers'.