blowball

Etymology

From blow + ball.

blowball means the downy seedhead of a dandelion, a dandelion clock. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 89 out of 100.

Why “blowball” is a great word

BLOWBALL — [Noun] The globular, downy seedhead of a dandelion, structured for dispersal by a breath. From 'blow' (to expel air) + 'ball' (a spherical object). First recorded in 1660–70. Unlike 'dandelion' (which names the entire hardy weed) or 'puffball' (which denotes a fungal sphere), a blowball is a singular, evanescent artifact of a specific plant's lifecycle. It is a silver-white globe of a hundred parachutes awaiting a child's wish, a ghost of the yellow flower that was, a fragile clock of latent meadows held in gossamer suspension. To scatter it is to enact a miniature entropy, where decay becomes potential and a conclusion becomes a beginning.

noun

The downy seedhead of a dandelion, a dandelion clock.