bouquet

the word 'bouquet' entered english from french in the 18th century, carrying its original meaning of a small cluster of trees or a thicket. this concrete image of a dense, clustered group was then metaphorically applied to a closely arranged bunch of cut flowers. the semantic logic is clear: from a thicket of trees to a thicket of flowers. later, in the 19th century, the term was extended in oenology to describe the complex, clustered aromas emanating from a wine, completing its journey from a literal grove to a figurative bundle of scents.

this word is a loanword from french where it functions as a single, unanalyzable unit in english. its french origin is the old northern french word 'bosquet', meaning a small wood or thicket, which is a diminutive of 'bosc' (wood, forest), from late latin 'boscus', likely of germanic origin.