hesperidium

American  

[hes-puh-rid-ee-uhm] / ˌhɛs pəˈrɪd i əm /

noun

Botany.

PLURAL

hesperidia

1. the fruit of a citrus plant, as an orange.

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hesperidium British  

/ ˌhɛspəˈrɪdɪəm /

noun

1. botany the fruit of citrus plants, in which the flesh consists of fluid-filled hairs and is protected by a tough rind

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Other Word Forms

• hesperidate adjective
• hesperideous adjective

Etymology

Origin of hesperidium

First recorded 1865–70; from New Latin, from hesperid-, a combining form used in botany meaning “derived from citrus fruit” + -ium ( def. ). Hesperid- derives from Latin Hesperides, from Greek Hesperídes (the plural of the peculiar feminine adjective hesperís, equivalent to hespérios “western”), denoting the daughters of Evening who guarded the golden apples, the garden where these golden apples grew, and the island where the garden was ( Islands of the Blessed ( def. ) ). It is uncertain whether the golden apples were apples or a kind of citrus fruit, in particular, the orange. The Swedish botanist Linnaeus ( def. ), alluding to the Hesperides, gave the taxonomic name Hesperideae to the botanical order that contains the genus Citrus; Hesperus ( def. )

Example Sentences

Both pepo and hesperidium may be considered as modifications of the berry.

From Project Gutenberg