Word of the Day

: August 2, 2014

jardiniere

noun jahr-duh-NEER

What It Means

1 a : an ornamental stand for plants or flowers

b : a large usually ceramic flowerpot holder

2 : a garnish for meat consisting of several cooked vegetables cut into pieces

jardiniere in Context

For dinner we ate slow-braised beef short ribs served with a jardiniere of garden-fresh vegetables.

"The show's most spectacular piece, displayed in the center of the exhibition space, is a jade-green stoneware jardiniere called 'Vase des Binelles' (1903) by Hector Guimard…." - Ken Johnson, The New York Times, February 13, 2014

Did You Know?

The seeds of "jardiniere" were planted back in ancient Germanic languages whose words for "garden" eventually grew into Old French "jardin," a term that produced several offshoots, including the French word "jardinier," meaning "gardener," and its feminine form "jardinière" (literally, "female gardener"). It was that "jardinière" that blossomed into the French (and later the English) word for a large ornamental flowerpot or plant stand. By the way, the Germanic forerunners of the French terms are also distantly linked to another word important to English-speakers: "garden."