Florid
adjective
Ornately or elegantly embellished or decorated
Of a light red hue, especially of flushed skin
Usage
Beauty is often achieved from and admired for its simplicity (hence the phrase “simple beauty”), but sometimes it is the complexity of something that gives it its elegance. If you’ve ever seen the geometric design of a dome or an unfolding fractal, you will know exactly how enchanting intricate designs can be. These are prime examples of when masterful artistry elevates something from merely complex to beautifully florid.
The word florid characterizes something as intricate, delicate, or multifaceted in its construction. Though most everything has its own kind of complexity, if something has a relatively high degree of complication and is meant to have some kind of aesthetic appeal, it can be said to be florid. Poetry composed of sonorous words, music with rich extended harmonies, architecture with gaudy or fluidly flowing design, and dance with an array of eye-catching gestures would all be florid executions or examples of their respective art forms. Critically, what makes these things florid is not simply that they are meant to be beautiful, but that they are attention-grabbing due to their ornateness and intricacy. Music with simple chords can be stirring, but it wouldn’t be florid, and neither would the crisp, clean lines of a brutalist building.
In its less common, though still contemporary second sense, florid can also mean that something takes on or gives off a rosy, faint shade of red. A cream infused with raspberry could certainly be a florid hue, and so would the clouds streaked red with the rays of a sun just beginning to set. Though anything of this pale red shade can be described as florid, it is particularly closely associated with skin that is flushed or reddened. For instance, it would be even more apt note that sunburned skin is florid, or that a ruddy person’s rosy cheeks are.
Finally, florid sees occasional usage in medical terminology to denote an ailment or illness which has reached a mature stage of development. A florid case of the flu would be one in which the patient is at the height of their fever temperature, and a poison ivy rash at its itchiest would be florid in this and the colorful sense of the word. You can think of such a florid state as when the symptoms are in their full bloom.
Whether from a faint red glow, bombastic intricacy, or a blossoming rash, something florid is rich with complexity.
Example: The archways of the Venetian palazzo was carved with florid shapes.
Example: Her friend so thoroughly embarrassed her at her birthday party that her face was florid.
Origin
Florid originally comes from the Latin root flos or flor, both of which mean a “blossom” or “flower.” This root formed the backbone of the Latin word floridus, meaning “flowing” or “blossoming,” which then evolved into the French word floride, for “thriving” or “blooming,” before passing into English in the mid-1600s.
Derivative Words
Floridity: This noun form of florid illustrates the quality of intricate decoration that something has.
Example: The floridity of his words masked their lack of substance, and won him many admirers.
Floridly: The adverb form characterizes a deed as being done in a fancy or embellished manner.
Example: She painted so floridly that every stroke looked perfectly and brilliantly conceived.
Floridness: This noun, as with floridity, also captures the ornateness or complexity of something.
Example: Shakespeare wrote poetry with a floridness that still enchants readers today.
In Literature
From Saul Bellow's Herzog:
I am willing without further exercise in pain to open my heart. And this needs no doctrine or theology of suffering. We love apocalypses too much, and crisis ethics and florid extremism with its thrilling language. Excuse me, no. I've had all the monstrosity I want.
Bellow compellingly argues for the simplicity and pureness of love by contrasting it with (and heartily rejecting) the intricate and alluring, or florid, sentiment that accompanies the idea of catastrophe and destruction. Truly, in this respect, we could all afford to live more simply.
Comments
While the US state of Florida does not take its name directly from the English word florid, it does come from the Spanish derivative of their common ancestor, flor, meaning “flower.” When the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León set foot on the peninsula on April 7, 1513, he named it La Florida after Pascua Florida, literally “flower festival,” which is a Spanish term referring to the season of the Easter holiday.
Mnemonic
Something that is florid has the brightness of a flower.
If your cheeks feel torrid, your face might look florid.
Florida is florid with tropical flowers.
Tags
Design, Art, Aesthetics, Complexity, Color
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