tulip (n.)
The name of the tulip goes back through European languages to Turkish tülbent, borrowed from Persian dulband, meaning a turban. Tulip and turban are related words.1
The Turkish name of the flower is lale. How a word for a head covering became its name elsewhere has attracted several explanations. One is that the flower was thought to resemble a turban. Another concerns the practice of wearing tulips on turbans and a supposed confusion between the flower and the thing beneath it.2
The comparison with a head covering appears in sixteenth-century botanical writing. Johannes Kentmann’s notes link the flower’s shape with a Dalmatian cap. John Gerard later describes petals turning back as the flower opens, giving it the appearance of a Dalmatian or Turkish cap.3
A 2022 study examined these early texts. Its authors found the comparison, but no sixteenth-century evidence for the familiar story of a translator mixing up the names. The connection with a turban is well established; the conversation sometimes offered to explain it remains unconfirmed.13
The first tulip opened beside the garden wall.