cactus: [17] Cactus comes via Latin from Greek káktos, which was the name of the cardoon, a plant of the thistle family with edible leafstalks. Cactus originally had that meaning in English too, and it was not until the 18th century that the Swedish botanist Linnaeus applied the term to a family of similarly prickly plants.
c. 1600, from Latin cactus "cardoon," from Greek kaktos, name of a type of prickly plant of Sicily (the Spanish artichoke), perhaps of pre-Hellenic origin. Modern meaning is 18c., because Linnaeus gave the name to a group of plants he thought were related to this but are not.
双语例句
1. Researchers observed one bird impale a rodent on a cactus.
研究人员观察到一只鸟把一只啮齿动物钉在一棵仙人掌上。
来自柯林斯例句
2. The road winds for miles through parched earth, scrub and cactus.
公路蜿蜒数英里，穿过炙烤的大地、灌木丛和仙人掌。
来自柯林斯例句
3. It was the first year that the cactus had produced flowers.
