Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2004

I think I prefer Hortense, it has a little whiff of French exoticism about it

The editor at De Tuingids (The Garden Guide) thought that the Napoleonic
Hortense was the source of the name:

    http://www.detuingids.be/pages/detail.asp?Id=2720 
      Deze plant wel eens genoemd naar HORTENSE DE
    BEAUHARNAIS, de bloedmooie dochter van Keizerin
    Josephine van Frankrijk.

But maybe they were wrong -- it wouldn't be the first time somebody was
wrong on the Web...

One page says that Hortense was named *after* the flower:

    Josephine had two children by Beauharnais, Eugene
    and Hortense. The latter was also named after a
    flower; the hortensia, known more familiarly as the
    "mophead" hydrangea.

Hortense de Beauharnais was b.1783, d. 1837, if that helps. I can't find
when the hydrangea hortensia was brought to Europe.

And here's another which mentions someone else, a botanist -- that's
rather what I expected in the first place:

    Hydrangeas: Pots Of Mopheads And Lacecaps
    Hortensias {H. macrophylla}, also known as bigleaf
    or garden hydrangeas, are very popular and widely
    grown. Hortensias, also known as "mopheads," were
    named in honor of Hortense, the daughter of 18th
    century botanist Prince de Nassau.

Well, that's something more to look for. And, yes, it turns up more
hits:

    1.De naam Hydrangea is voor het eerst gebruikt door
    de botanist Grovonius in zijn 'Flora
    Virginica'.*********2.De naam Hortensia is gegeven
    ter ere van Hortense van Nassau ,de dochter van de
    Prins van Nassau,die deel uitmaakte van de
    plant-hunter-expeditie van Bougainville.

(The name Hydrangea was first used by the botanist Grovonious in his
"Flora Virginica." The name Hortensia was given in honor of Hortense van
nassu, the daughter of the Prince of Nassau, who took part in the
plant-hunter expedition of Bougainville.)

Another page says Hortense was the sister of the one who went on the
expedition:

    De hortensia is vernoemd naar Hortense van Nassau,
    zuster van de prins van Nassau-Siegen, die als
    officier in Franse dienst in 1766 deel nam aan een
    wereldreis van plantenverzamelaar Bougenville en de
    Hydrangea hier introduceerde.

The date checks: Louis Antoine de Bougainville sailed around the world,
1766-69, collecting plants. The flower he collected in Brazil is of
course named for him, Bougainvillea. However, the page I checked does
*not* mention whether he collected the hydrangea.

However, another mentions that Philibert Commerson, the botanist you say
the OED credits with the name, was on that same voyage... Maybe he made
a little pun, naming the flower both in honor of gardens *and* the
sister of his expedition comrade, the prince.

Like your French post said, however, the beautiful Hortense rests
mysterious. It does seem terribly likely that the real origin of the
name was simply "the garden hydrangea, the hydrangea grown in gardens"
and all these women were named later, or independently.

I would expect the adjective "hortensia" to have been used in many other
species, the same way that, say, "chinensis" and "japonica" turn up in
many names... And indeed, with a little looking, I find:

    Rudbeckia Laciniata Hortensia
    Myosotidium Hortensia

And they have nothing to do with hydrangeas.

The earliest record I can find in Ancestry World Tree with the name
"Hortense" is a German countess born 1569. There may be some earlier,
there's no quick way to check. Now I wonder, was "Hortensia" used as a
woman's name in Roman times?...

"Bob smiles!" (only those cinema buffs of a certain age will understand)

In alt.usage.english, Charles Riggs wrote:

A friend surnamed Cove named his first-born Sandy.

This is not the first time the President has used "liberation" as our reason
for being there in Iraq.  It is frightening to me that he will use these
calls on the emotions of the WWII generation.

Another egregious slam at the Midwest.