† antheran.

Etymology: < classical Latin anthēra salve or medicinal preparation made with flower stamens, in post-classical Latin also the yellow astringent part in the middle of a rose (14th cent. in a British source: see quot. a1400 in the etymological note), the part of the stamen containing the pollen or fertilizing dust (1706 or earlier: see quot. 1706 at sense 1) < Hellenistic Greek ἀνθηρά , use as noun of feminine of ancient Greek ἀνθηρός flowery < ἀνθε- , ἄνθος flower (see anthos n.) + -ρός, suffix forming adjectives.Compare Old French antere , Middle French, French †anthera , French anthère part of the stamen containing the pollen (1314 in an apparently isolated attestation in Old French as antere , subsequently from 1787), yellow astringent part in the middle of a rose (1501 in an apparently isolated attestation, subsequently from 1694; also 1611 in Cotgrave as †anthere ), and also †antheres , feminine plural noun (1627 in a translation of Matthioli's commentary on Dioscorides; subsequently reinterpreted as a singular noun †antheras (1752)), denoting the medicinal preparation. Compare also Italian antera (end of the 13th cent. in sense ‘pollen of a rose’, 1765 in the modern sense ‘part of the stamen containing the pollen’). The medicines called by the classical Latin name anthēra often consisted of the internal organs of flowers. Hence the classical Latin word came to be applied by early herbalists and pharmacists to these parts of a flower, and was subsequently further restricted (and so used by Linnaeus) to denote the pollen-bearing organ (known to earlier writers as post-classical Latin theca theca n., capsula capsule n., or apex apex n.¹). The following post-classical Latin quotation as well as the English quotations 1601, 1706 at sense 1 illustrate this semantic development:a1400 J. Mirfield Sinonoma Bartholomei (1882) 10 Antera, dicitur flos rosae, est autem quiddam quod reperitur in rosa interius [Antera is called the flower of the rose; it is something found on the inside of a rose].