When it first entered English "florid" was used with the literal meaning "covered with flowers." That use, though now obsolete, hints at the word's history. English speakers borrowed "florid" from the Latin adjective floridus ("blooming" or "flowery"), itself from the verb "florēre" ("to bloom"). Something that's elaborate and full of extra flourishes is florid, whether it's your relatives' ornate decorating style or the way they talk, using a lot of unnecessarily long, complicated words.

Context Explanation

FLORID meaning: 1. with too much decoration or detail: 2. (of a person's face) too red, especially in a way that…. Learn more.

Insight Material

1. reddish; ruddy. 2. flowery; excessively ornate: florid writing. 3.

Final Conclusion

Obs. abounding in or consisting of flowers. From French floride (“flourishing”), from Latin floridus (“flowery, blooming”). Doublet of Florida. florid (comparative more florid, superlative most florid) Having a rosy or pale red colour; ruddy. Elaborately ornate; flowery.

If you describe something as florid, you disapprove of the fact that it is complicated and extravagant rather than plain and simple. Flowery in appearance or effect; highly embellished or decorated; loaded with ornamentation: as, florid architecture; florid music. Embellished with flowers of rhetoric; enriched with lively figures; highly ornate; overwrought in expression: as, a florid style; florid eloquence. Definition of florid adjective in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary.