Resting on Your Laurels Comes From Ancient Prizes
Laurel is an evergreen shrub whose leaves crowned victors. Two English phrases preserve the practice exactly.
Laurel is an evergreen shrub whose leaves were woven into wreaths for victors in ancient Greece and Rome. Two phrases keep the custom alive: to *rest on your laurels* is to rely on past achievements, and to *look to your laurels* is to guard a position you might lose. *Baccalaureate* and *poet laureate* come from the same crown.
- An evergreen shrub. *A laurel hedge.*
- A wreath of honour. *Crowned with laurel.*
- Rest on your laurels — rely on past success. *Do not rest on your laurels.*
- Laureate — an honoured person. *The poet laureate.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | laurel | A laurel wreath. |
| Plural | laurels | Winning laurels. |
| Adjective | laureate | The poet laureate. |
| Related | baccalaureate | An international baccalaureate. |
| Related | bay | A bay leaf. |
How it is used in a sentence
- He is resting on his laurels.Coasting on past achievement.
- The bay leaf comes from the same plant.Bay laurel.
- Nobel laureates receive no laurel wreath.The word survives, the crown does not.
Laurel words
- Laureate — crowned with laurel, hence honoured
- Poet Laureate — the official poet of a nation or court
- Baccalaureate — possibly from laurel berries, *bacca lauri*
- Bay leaf — from the bay laurel, used in cooking
- Nobel laureate — a prize winner, keeping the ancient metaphor
From Old French *lorier*, from Latin *laurus*. Victors and poets were crowned with laurel from ancient Greece onwards.
Is a bay leaf a laurel?
Yes. Cooking bay leaves come from the bay laurel, *Laurus nobilis*, the same species used for victory wreaths.
Why is a graduate a bachelor?
Possibly from *bacca lauri*, laurel berries, though the connection is disputed and other origins have been proposed.