[f. Ger. edel noble + weiss white.] An Alpine plant, Gnaphalium Leontopodium or Leontopodium alpinum, remarkable for its white flower, growing in rocky places, often scarcely accessible, on the Swiss mountains. Also attrib., as in edelweiss-lace.
1862. Emerson, Thoreau, Wks. (Bohn), III. 339. It is called by … the Swiss Edelweiss, which signifies Noble Purity.
1878. Browning, La Saisiaz, 21. I knew an Alpine-rose which all beside named Edelweiss.
1882. [Maria Trench], Charles Lowder, 356. A … cross of edelweis had been placed on the coffin.
1884. Daily News, 10 Nov., 2/7. Perhaps the most successful rival of Nottingham goods is the German-Swiss Edelweiss lace.
