blossom

Etymology

blossoms]] From Middle English blosme, from Old English blostm, blostma, from Proto-Germanic *blōsmaz (compare West Frisian blossem, Dutch bloesem), an enlargement of *blōstaz (compare German Blust), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₃-s- (“bloom, flower”), from *bʰleh₃- (“to bloom, to thrive”). Cognate with Albanian bleron (“to blossom, to thrive”), Latin flōs (“flower”), Flōra (“goddess of plants”). See more at blow (etymology 4).

noun

1. A flower, especially one indicating that a fruit tree is fruiting; (collectively) a mass of such flowers.
   The blossom has come early this year.
   Foppiſh and fantaſtick Ornaments are only Indications of Vice, not criminal in themſelves. Extinguiſh Vanity in the Mind, and you naturally retrench the little Superfluities of Garniture and Equipage. The Bloſſoms will fall of themſelves, when the Root that nouriſhes them is deſtroyed. 16 March 1711, Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, editors, The Spectator, volume I, number 16, London: Printed for S[amuel] Buckley, at the Dolphin in Little-Britain; and J[acob] Tonson, at Shakespear's-Head over-against Catherine-street in the Strand, →OCLC, page 89
2. The state or season of producing such flowers.
   The orchard is in blossom.
3. (figurative) A blooming period or stage of development; something lovely that gives rich promise.
   This beauty, in the blossom of my youth, / When my first fire knew no adulterate incense, / Nor I no way to flatter, but my fondness; / … long did I love this lady, / Long was my travail, long my trade to win her; / With all the duty of my soul, I served her. c. 1619–1622, Philip Massinger, “A Very Woman”, in Three New Playes: viz. The Bashful Lover, Guardian, Very Woman. As They have been Often Acted at the Private-house in Black-Friers, by His Late Majesties Servants, with Great Applause, London: Printed for Humphrey Moseley, and are to be sold at his shop at the sign of the Prince's Arms in St. Pauls Church-yard, published 1655, →OCLC, act IV, scene iii; republished as W[illiam] Gifford, editor, The Plays of Philip Massinger, in Four Volumes. With Notes Critical and Explanatory, volume IV, London: Printed for G[eorge] and W[illiam] Nicol [et al.] by W[illiam] Bulmer and Co., Cleveland-Row, St. James's, 1805, →OCLC, page 317
4. The colour of a horse that has white hairs intermixed with sorrel and bay hairs.
   For colour he [Nobs, a horse] was neither black-bay, brown-bay, dapple-bay, black-grey, iron-grey, sad-grey, branded-grey, sandy-grey, dapple-grey, silver-grey, dun, mouse-dun, flea-backed, flea-bitten, rount, blossom, roan, pye-bald, rubican, sorrel, cow-coloured sorrel, bright sorrel, burnt sorrel, starling-colour, tyger-colour, wolf-colour, deer-colour, cream-colour, white, grey, or black. Neither was he green, like the horse which the Emperor [Septimus] Severus took from the Parthians, … 1834–1847, Robert Southey, “A Feeble Attempt to Describe the Physical and Moral Qualities of Nobs”, in John Wood Warter, editor, The Doctor, &c., London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green and Longman, →OCLC; new edition, London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1862, →OCLC, page 358, column 2

verb

1. (intransitive) To have, or open into, blossoms; to bloom.
   The Utricularia vulgaris or bladder-wort, a yellow pea-like flower, has blossomed in stagnant pools. 22 June 1851, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, edited by H. G. O. Blake, Summer: From the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau, London: T. Fisher Unwin, 26 Paternoster Square E.C., published 1884, page 210
2. (intransitive) To begin to thrive or flourish.
   Since I came back from Pomona I have done many drawings to illustrate the Inferno of Dante [Alighieri] and I find my old Italian love blossoming all over again for this greatest of all master poets, bar none. 30 January 1961, Rico Lebrun, “New Haven · Capri · Rome (1958–1960) [To David Lebrun from Los Angeles, January 30, 1961]”, in James Renner, David Lebrun, editors, In the Meridian of the Heart: Selected Letters of Rico Lebrun, Boston, Mass.: David R. Godine, Publisher, published 2000, page 66