syringa

American  

[suh-ring-guh] / səˈrɪŋ gə /

noun

1. mock orange.

2. any shrub or tree of the genus Syringa, including the lilacs.

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syringa British  

/ sɪˈrɪŋɡə /

noun

1. another name for mock orange lilac

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Etymology

Origin of syringa

1655–65; < New Latin < Greek sȳring- (stem of sŷrinx syrinx ) + New Latin -a -a ²; name first given to mock orange, the stems of which were used in pipe-making

Example Sentences

There’s a California lilac — not the true syringa lilac of rhapsodic song and poetry but a ceanothus.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 29, 2022

The poem recalled Dr. Crozier as a bald, bigheaded boy who waged war with syringa berries, “the stick-breaker, the toddler I carried on my shoulders up and down the dirt tracks.”

From New York Times • Dec. 7, 2014

It was called "Heaven Trees," a place of calm walks and lawns, fragrant with myrtle and syringa.

From Time Magazine Archive

Then the speckled Canada warbler came in the lilac bushes and syringa branches and gave me several good views.

From Under the Maples by Burroughs, John

She rose and went to the glass door standing open on the piazza, where a syringa bush was filling the dull, warm air with its breath.

From The Quality of Mercy by Howells, William Dean