anemone
(əˈnɛməniː, Bot. L. ænɪˈməʊniː)
Also 7 enemony, 7–9 anemony.
[a. L. anemōnē, a. Gr. ἀνεµώνη the wind-flower, lit. ‘daughter of the wind,’ f. ἄνεµ-ος wind + -ώνη fem. patronymic suff. The anglicized anemony was common last century.]
1. Bot. A genus of plants (family Ranunculaceæ) with handsome flowers, widely diffused over the temperate regions of the world, of which one (A. nemorosa), called also the Wind-flower, is common in Britain, and several brilliantly-flowered species are cultivated.
| 1551 Turner Herbal. (1568) 30 Anemone hath the name..because the floure neuer openeth it selfe, but when the wynde bloweth. 1657 S. Purchas Pol. Flying Ins. ii. xv. 94 Bees gather of these flowers following..In March..Enemony. 1728 Thomson Spring 533 From the soft wing of vernal breezes shed, Anemonies. 1759 B. Stillingfleet in Misc. Tracts (1762) 149 Linnæus says, that the wood-anemone blows from the arrival of the swallow. 1763 Stukely Palæogr. Sacra 13 The wild anemone is called pasque flower, from the Paschal solemnity of our Saviour's death. 1873 Symonds Grk. Poets xii. 403 Scarlet and white anemones are there, some born of Adonis' blood, and some of Aphrodite's tears. |
b. attrib.
| 1731 Bradley Gardening 149 Choice Anemony roots. 1760 Mrs. Delany Autobiog. (1861) III. 598, I have not grounded any part of the anemony pattern. |
2. Zool. sea anemone: (when understood from the subject or context ‘sea’ is omitted;) the popular name of various Actinoid Zoophytes, especially of the genera Actinia, Bunodes, and Sagartia.
| 1773 Phil. Trans. LXIII. 371, I clipped all the limbs of a purple Anemone. 1775 Ibid. LXV. 217, I have seen an anemony of a moderate size swallow a smelt at least six inches long. 1855 Gosse Mar. Zool. I. 15 The extensive group known popularly as Sea-anemones or Animal flowers, from the blossom-like appearance of their expanded disks and tentacles, and their gorgeous colours. 1881 H. Moseley in Nature XXIII. 515 The mouth of the sea-anemony. |
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Add: 3. Special Comb. anemone-fish, any of various damselfishes that live in a commensal relationship with sea anemones; esp. one of the genus Amphiprion.
| 1936 T. C. Roughley Wonders Great Barrier Reef vi. 51 *Anemone fish are always brightly coloured and conspicuously marked. 1955 A. Ross Australia 55 xi. 117 These tiny anemone-fish..work in conjunction with the anemone. 1990 Sea Frontiers Feb. 47 (caption) The twobar anemonefish (Amphiprion bicinctus) gains protection from the Stoichactidae anemone. |