Title : "Coxcomb."
link : "Coxcomb."
"Coxcomb."
That's a painting by Georgia O'Keefe. The title is "Coxcomb," and because I like Georgia O'Keefe, I feel as though I've prevailed in my debate with Meade about whether the name of the flower is spelled "coxcomb" or "cockscomb."
The subject came up in connection with a visual joke I presented in the previous post, which is about a brain wrapped in tinfoil that was found on a beach in Racine, Wisconsin. Along with the brain — which was not a human brain, so don't engage the empathy regions of your human brain — were money and flowers. The visual joke was that that the flowers that belong with a brain are the flowers that look like brains — coxcomb. Or cockscomb.
The truth is, I defer to Meade's spelling. He's the gardener. He's even saying "Celosia," which means nothing to me. In fact, I didn't even know the name "cockscomb/coxcomb." I said something like "What's that flower that looks like a brain?" I knew the flower. Had no idea at all of the name. When he said "cockscomb," I spelled it "coxcomb," and I got my images of the flower all labeled with that spelling. But if you google the other spelling, you get all the images, and now they're labeled "cockscomb."
I was still arguing for "coxcomb" because I'm an aesthete of the visual text, and I think "x" is a great-looking letter. Much lovelier than the "cks" combination. Good for playing Scrabble too — a high-scoring tile. On the other hand, if I say I prefer "cox," I can be accused of shying away from "cocks," that good old-fashioned genitalia word.
But the whole dispute is resolved, I believe, by Georgia O'Keefe. She spelled it "coxcomb," so "cockscomb" it is.
But I looked it up in the Oxford English Dictionary. To focus on the flower Celosia, here are all the spellings in the chosen historical quotes:
1718 R. Bradley Gentleman & Gardeners Kal. 80 Pot some of your Amaranthus Tricolor and Cockscombs; give them a fresh Bed to draw them tall.From that I'd say, take you pick. And I'd argue that the "x" looks better. And I think Georgia O'Keefe liked it better.
1785 T. Martyn in tr. J.-J. Rousseau Lett. Elements Bot. xvi. 218 The Crested Amaranth..is commonly called Cock's comb, from the form in which the head of flowers grows.
1818 A. Eaton Man. Bot. (ed. 2) 132 [Amaranthus] albus (white coxcomb)... [Amaranthus] tricolor (three-coloured coxcomb).
1882 Garden 15 Apr. 262/1 Balsams..and the old-fashioned Cockscomb.
1914 F. E. Fritsch & E. J. Salisbury Introd. Study Plants xv. 202 A similar process leads to the production of the Coxcomb and the Cauliflower, both of which are monstrosities.
1948 Bot. Rev. 14 320 The common cockscomb, Celosia cristata, and its numerous plumose forms, is one of the world's most common garden flowers.
2017 Gettysburg (Pa.) Times 15 Sept. c1/1 This month what catches the eye immediately is the front corner planting of coxcomb or celosia.
Thus articles "Coxcomb."
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