EDELWEISS:

Origin and diffusion

 

Fi hour edelweiss ( Leontopodium alpinum ) on Rax-Schneeberg Group

It is the German name of the edelweiss made internationally famous thanks to the homonymous song from the musical The Sound of Music ; It is therefore part of that whole array of floral-inspired names, such as Rosa , Daisy , Giacinta , Boglárka , Sakura and Petunia .

The term, also written in German edelweiss and pronounced èdelvais (although the pronunciation edelvàis occurs in Italian), is recent, probably created by tourists visiting the Alps in the 19th century ; etymologically , it is composed of the German words edel (or edili, "noble") and weiss ("white")   and therefore means "noble white" [4] . The first element dates back to a very common root in Germanic onomastics , present in names such as Ethel , Etelreda , Adele , Adelaide , Adelinda and so on.