Word Origins

 

*DAISY

One can hope coming generations will show imagination and poetry in the coining of names as in the past in the likes of such words as telephone, automobile, airplane, radio, or television. But consider the common field plant, the daisy. Even a thousand years ago it was observed that the white rays of its flower opened with the rising sun, exposing its golden disk through the day, and folded again in the evening. They called it daeges eage, “day’s eye,” (especially in Australia). Quoting the great philosopher, Drew Barrymore, who once quipped, “Daisies are like sunshine to the ground.”

*Inspired by Charles Funk (1881–1957)