Flax
/flæks/noun
A plant with blue flowers and slender stems, cultivated for its fiber and seeds.
Did you know?Flax is one of those ancient crop words that stayed remarkably stable through Germanic languages, showing how essential fiber plants were to early daily life and textile technology.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*flahsą
“flax; the flax plant and its fiber”
Old English
OE
fleax
“flax, the plant and its fiber”
Middle English
ME
flax
“flax”
Modern English
EN
flax
“the plant cultivated for fiber and seed”