carnation
noun /kɑːˈneɪʃn/
/kɑːrˈneɪʃn/
- a white, pink, red or yellow flower, often worn as a decoration on formal occasions
enlarge image- He was wearing a carnation in his buttonhole.
Word Originlate 16th cent.: perhaps based on a misreading of Arabic qaranful ‘clove or clove pink’, from Greek karyophyllon. The early forms suggest confusion with a different word carnation ‘rosy pink colour’, with incarnation, and with coronation.
