Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A genus of orchids, type of the tribe Neottieæ, belonging to the subtribe Spirantheæ, and known by the long column and leafless habit.
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word neottia.
Examples
-
When the flowers of early summer are gone, and the graceful neottia is seen in the meadows, extending its spiral clusters among the nodding grasses, -- when the purple orchis is glowing in the wet grounds, and the roadsides are gleaming with the yellow blossoms of the hypericum, the merry voice of the Bobolink has ceased, and many other familiar birds have become almost silent.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 2, No. 14, December 1858 Various
-
The bright blue flowers of the soap-wort gentian were sprinkled here and there in the adjacent meadows, like flowers which Proserpine had dropped, and still farther in the fields or higher on the bank were seen the purple Gerardia, the Virginian rhexia, and drooping neottia or ladies'-tresses; while from the more distant waysides which we occasionally passed, and banks where the sun had lodged, was reflected still a dull yellow beam from the ranks of tansy, now past its prime.
missanthropist commented on the word neottia
Greek Nest.
July 10, 2008