campanulate

[prettygoodword]

campanulate (kam-PAM-yuh-lit) - adj., shaped like a bell.


So not a verb, strictly an adjective, so no stress on the final syllable. This seems to be used only in botany, to describe flowers (and sometimes fruit?) such as the bellflowers, genus Campanula:


Thanks, WikiMedia!

From Latin campanula, little bell, diminutive of campāna, bell, probably from Campānia, modern name Campania, the region of Italy around Naples, which in ancient times was a center of bronze production, used to make bells. So, "little Neapolitan"?

---L.

Comments

[movingfinger]

Isn't campania < campos, field, plains, so this "campanula" might be "small field (flower)(weed)"?

[prettygoodword]

I gather the evidence for the bell meaning in Latin is strong enough to argue against that.