A flowering plant with bell-shaped flowers, typically in shades of blue or purple, belonging to the genus Campanula.
From Middle English, a direct compound of 'bell' (because of the flower's shape) + 'flower.' The plant's distinctive bell-like form was so obvious that early English speakers simply described what they saw.
Bellflowers inspired their own scientific name—Campanula comes from Latin 'campana' meaning bell—showing how across languages and centuries, people independently noticed the same thing: these flowers look exactly like bells.
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