heliotrope
Meanings
- A plant with flowers which turn to face and follow the sun, such as (archaic) marigolds and sunflowers.
- A plant of the genus Heliotropium, especially a common heliotrope (Heliotropium arborescens), which has clusters of purple flowers with a strong fragrance.
- With a qualifying word: any of various plants resembling those of the genus Heliotropium.
- The fragrance of Heliotropium arborescens flowers, or a scent resembling this fragrance.
- A light purple or violet colour like that of Heliotropium arborescens flowers.
- An instrument that uses a mirror to reflect sunlight for purposes such as signalling, or (surveying) triangulation (where the reflected light is detected by another surveyor positioned some distance away).
- An ancient type of sundial consisting of a bowl with a perpendicular gnomon mounted in the centre.
- Synonym of bloodstone (“a green chalcedony that is sprinkled with red spots or veins of hematite”).
- Of a light purple or violet colour like that of Heliotropium arborescens flowers.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
PIE word *sóh₂wl̥ The noun is borrowed from French héliotrope, from Latin hēliotropium (“plant which turns to face the sun; bloodstone”), from Ancient Greek ἡλῐοτρόπῐον (hēlĭotrópĭon, “European heliotrope (Heliotropium europaeum); bloodstone; solar clock, sundial”), from ἥλῐος (hḗlĭos, “the sun”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sóh₂wl̥ (“the sun”)) + τρόπος (trópos, “a turn”) (from τρέπω (trépō, “to rotate; to turn”) (from Proto-Indo-European *trep- (“to turn”)) + -ος (-os, suffix forming nouns from verbs)) + -ῐον (-ĭon, diminutive suffix forming nouns). By surface analysis, helio- + -trope. The French-derived spelling displaced Middle English elitrope, eliotropius, elitropium (“plant which turns to face the sun; bloodstone”) [and other forms], from Old English eliotropus, from Latin hēliotropium (see above); and Old English siġelhweorfa, sōlsece, and sunnfolgend (“heliotrope flower”). Noun sense 6 (“synonym of bloodstone”) is from the fact that a piece of the mineral placed in water is said to change the sun’s rays to a blood-red colour: see the 1601 quotation. The adjective is probably derived from the noun.