nymphaea

• (UK) IPA^(key): /nɪmˈfiːə/

From Latin nymphaea, from Ancient Greek νυμφαῖα (numphaîa), feminine singular form of νυμφαῖος (numphaîos, “sacred to the nymphs”), from νύμφη (númphē, “nymph”).

Sense 2 is a semantic loan from translingual Nymphaea, from the same Latin and Greek.

nymphaea (plural nymphaeas)

1. (botany, originally), the European white water lily.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 5, member 1, subsection v:

     Guianerius, cap. 8, tract. 15, would have them used twice a day, and when they come forth of the baths, their backbones to be anointed with oil of almonds, violets, nymphæa, fresh capon-grease, etc.

2. (taxonomy) Any species of the genus Nymphaea.

Inflected forms.

nymphaea

1. plural of nymphaeum

From Ancient Greek νυμφαία (numphaía).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [nymˈpʰae̯.a]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [nimˈfɛː.a]

nymphaea f (genitive nymphaeae); first declension

1. water lily

First-declension noun.

• nympha

• Translingual: Nymphaea

• “nymphaea”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• nymphaea in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “nymphaea”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly