floscŭlus

I. a little flower, floweret (rare but class.).

I. Lit.: ficta omnia celeriter tamquam flosculi decidunt, Cic. Off. 2, 12, 43.—

B. Transf., the part of a fruit where the blossom was, the eye, Col. 12, 45, 5.—

II. Trop., the flower, pride, ornament: non enim flosculos ... sed, jam decimum aetatis ingressus annum, certos atque deformatos fructus ostenderat, Quint. 6 praef. § 9; Cat. 24, 1: vitae, Juv. 9, 127.—

B. In partic., of speech.

1. Flower of rhetoric, ornament: omnes undique flosculos carpere atque delibare, Cic. Sest. 56, 119; cf.: juvenibus flosculos omnium partium in ea, quae sunt dicturi, congerentibus, Quint. 10, 5, 23; 2, 5, 22; 12, 10, 73: ut Noctes istae quadam tenus his quoque historiae flosculis leviter injectis aspergerentur, Gell. 17, 2, 1.—

2. A motto, sentence culled from a writing, Sen. Ep. 33, 1.