snapdragon

英 ['snæpdræg(ə)n] 美['snæpdræɡən]

复数: snapdragons;

snapdragon 金鱼草，啮龙花

snap,咬，dragon,龙。比喻用法，因这种花形如传说中的龙咬合的嘴而得名。

1. a garden plant of the genus Antirrhinum having showy white or yellow or crimson flowers resembling the face of a dragon

snapdragon: snapdragon: [16] The herbalist John Gerard (no feminist, evidently) gave the reason why antirrhinums were called snapdragons: ‘The flowers [are] fashioned like a dragon’s mouth; from whence the women have taken the name Snapdragon’, Herbal 1597. The term was also used from the early 18th century for a party game which involved picking raisins out of a bowl of burning brandy and eating them while they were still alight – the allusion being of course to the dragon’s firebreathing habits.
snapdragon (n.): garden plant, 1570s, from snap (n.) + dragon. So called from fancied resemblance of antirrhinum flowers to a dragon's mouth. As the name of a Christmas game of plucking raisins from burning brandy and eating them alight, from 1704.