Link Centre Dictionary

periwinkle

pe·ri·winkle

UK/ˈpɛɹ.ɪˌwɪŋ.kəl/ rare

noun

1.

chiefly trailing poisonous plants with blue flowers

2.
3.
4.

Origin

From Middle English [Term?], alteration of *pinewinkle (compare English dialectal pennywinkle), from Old English pīnewincle, compound of Latin pīna (“kind of mussel”), itself from Ancient Greek πίνη (pínē), variant of πίννα (pínna, “mussel”)) and Old English wincel (“corner”) (compare dialectal Danish vinkel (“snail shell”)). More at winch and wink.

Phrases

  • bigleaf periwinkle
  • blue periwinkle
  • checkered periwinkle
  • common periwinkle
  • flat periwinkle
  • giant periwinkle
  • greater periwinkle
  • herbaceous periwinkle
  • large periwinkle
  • Madagascar periwinkle
  • rose periwinkle
  • rough periwinkle

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.