Meaning

noun plants with sword-shaped leaves and erect stalks bearing bright-colored flowers composed of three petals and three drooping sepals

noun muscular diaphragm that controls the size of the pupil which in turn controls the amount of light that enters the eye; it forms the colored portion of the eye

noun diaphragm consisting of thin overlapping plates that can be adjusted to change the diameter of a central opening

originEtymology tree Ancient Greek ἶρις (îris)bor. Latin irisbor. English iris From Middle English iris, from Latin īris, from Ancient Greek ἶρις (îris, “rainbow”). Presuming an earlier form *ϝῖρις (*wîris), possibly from a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *w(e)ih₁-ro- (“a twist, thread, cord, wire”), from *weh₁y- (“to turn, twist, weave, plait”). If so, it would be cognate to English wire.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0