immortelle

[im-awr-tel]

noun

an everlasting plant or flower, especially Xeranthemum annuum.

Origin of immortelle

1825–35; < French, noun use of feminine of immortel immortal; see -elle

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for immortelle

Historical Examples of immortelle

Captain Grant, a fine fellow, put a wreath or immortelle upon the coffin as it passed us in church.
The Personal Life Of David Livingstone
William Garden Blaikie
I put out my hand and touched a yellow blossom; it felt like an immortelle on a funeral pillow.
The Mystery of Choice
Robert William Chambers
The design on the monument was of a girl hanging an immortelle upon a cross.
The English in the West Indies
James Anthony Froude
Immortelle, im-mor-tel′, n. any one of the flowers commonly called everlasting.
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M)
Various
It will be hard for me to take a part in a masquerade, but the memory of my parents demands this immortelle from me.
Freezing a Mother-in-Law
Thomas Edgar Pemberton

British Dictionary definitions for immortelle

immortelle

noun

any of various plants, mostly of the family Asteraceae (composites), that retain their colour when dried, esp Xeranthemum annuumAlso called: everlasting, everlasting flower

Word Origin for immortelle

C19: from French (fleur) immortelle everlasting (flower)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for immortelle

"flower which preserves its shape and color after being dried," 1832, from French fem. of immortel "undying" (see immortal).