Also 7 enemony, 7–9 anemony. [a. L. anemōnē, a. Gr. ἀνεμώνη the wind-flower, lit. ‘daughter of the wind,’ f. ἄνεμ-ος wind + -ώνη fem. patronymic suff. The anglicized anemony was common last century.]
1. Bot. A genus of plants (N.O. Ranunculaceæ) with handsome flowers, widely diffused over the temperate regions of the world, of which one (A. nemorosa), called also the Wind-flower, is common in Britain, and several brilliantly flowered species are cultivated.
1551. Turner, Herbal. (1568), 30. Anemone hath the name … because the floure neuer openeth it selfe, but when the wynde bloweth.
1657. S. Purchas, Pol. Flying Ins., II. xv. 94. Bees gather of these flowers following … In March … Enemony.
1728. Thomson, Spring, 533. From the soft wing of vernal breezes shed, Anemonies.
1759. B. Stillingfleet, in Misc. Tracts (1762), 149. Linnæus says, that the wood-anemone blows from the arrival of the swallow.
1763. Stukeley, Palæogr. Sacra, 13. The wild anemone is called pasque flower, from the Paschal solemnity of our Saviour’s death.
1873. Symonds, Grk. Poets, xii. 403. Scarlet and white anemones are there, some born of Adonis’ blood, and some of Aphrodite’s tears.
b. attrib.
1731. Bradley, Gardening, 149. Choice Anemony roots.
1760. Mrs. Delaney, Autobiog. (1861), III. 598. I have not grounded any part of the anemony pattern.
2. Zool. Sea Anemone: (when understood from the subject or context ‘Sea’ is omitted;) the popular name of various Actinoid Zoophytes, especially of the genera Actinia, Bunodes, and Sagartia.
1773. Phil. Trans., LXIII. 371. I clipped all the limbs of a purple Anemone. Ibid. (1775), LXV. 217. I have seen an anemony of a moderate size swallow a smelt at least six inches long.
1855. Gosse, Mar. Zool., I. 15. The extensive group known popularly as Sea-anemones or Animal flowers, from the blossom-like appearance of their expanded disks and tentacles, and their gorgeous colours.
1881. H. Moseley, in Nature, XXIII. 515/1. The mouth of the sea-anemony is always turned away from the crab.
