Chambers (1908)

Columbine

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[L. columba, a dove.]

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Columbine, kol′um-bīn, adj. of or like a dove: dove-coloured.—n. a genus of plants (Aquilegia) having five coloured sepals, which soon fall off, and five petals, each terminating below in a horn-shaped spur or nectary: in pantomimes, the sweetheart of Harlequin (q.v.).—ns. Columbā′rium, a dovecot or pigeon-house: one of the niches or pigeon-holes in a particular kind of sepulchral chamber in which the urns containing the ashes of dead bodies burned were deposited; Col′umbary, a pigeon-house or dovecot. [L. columba, a dove.]

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Chambers’s Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language
Thomas Davidson (editor)
1908

Public-domain-US ↗ · United States

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