snapdragon
/ˈsnæpdɹæɡən/
Etymology
(1570s) From snap + dragon, from a fancied resemblance, especially by playing children that the flower is a dragon that opens its "mouth" when squeezed on the sides. Compare for this sense the etymology of Dutch leeuwenbek (“snapdragon”, literally “lion's mouth”) and German Löwenmaul. An ancient name was Old English hundeshéafod (literally “dog's head”). For the parlour game sense, the 1704 Swift quotation is apparently the earliest appearance in print.
Other animal-based names for the flower are common; compare Greek σκυλάκι (skyláki, literally “puppy”) and Finnish leijonankita (literally “lion's mouth”).
snapdragon means any plant of the genus Antirrhinum, with showy yellow, white or red flowers. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 89 out of 100.
snapdragon is pronounced /ˈsnæpdɹæɡən/.
Why “snapdragon” is a great word
SNAPDRAGON — [Noun] Any plant of the genus Antirrhinum, bearing blossoms with a bilabiate corolla that opens and closes its mouth-like cavity when laterally squeezed. From the English words snap (suggesting a quick bite or closure) and dragon (a mythical beast), from the fancied resemblance of the flower to a dragon's head that snaps its jaws. Unlike "foxglove," which denotes a genus of tall, toxic spires with pendant bells, or "pansy," which conjures a soft, whimsical face on velveteen petals, the snapdragon is architectural and interactive. It is the satisfying, hollow click of a blossom pinched between a child's thumb and forefinger, the velvet-ridged gullet in deep magenta or sun-bleached yellow, and the silent, sprung trap waiting in a sunlit border—a small, perfect engine of pretend predation, where even the gentlest garden holds the ghost of a snarl.
noun
- Any plant of the genus Antirrhinum, with showy yellow, white or red flowers.“[…]of kitchen-gardens, and straight herb-borders, and warm snap-dragon beset by bees;”
- A game in which raisins are snatched from a vessel containing burning brandy, and eaten; the substance snatched and eaten during the playing of the game; the vessel used for the game.“He bore a ſtrange kind of Appetite to Snap-dragon, and to the livid Snuffs of a burning Candle, which he would catch and ſwallow with an Agility, wonderful to conceive; [...]”