syringa Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun large hardy shrub with showy and strongly fragrant creamy-white flowers in short terminal racemes
    mock orange; Philadelphus coronarius.
  2. noun genus of Old World shrubs or low trees having fragrant flowers in showy panicles: lilacs
    genus Syringa.

WordNet

Sy*rin"ga noun
Etymology
NL., fr. Gr. , , a shepherd's pipe, tube. Cf. Syringe.
Definitions
  1. (Bot.) (a) A genus of plants; the lilac. (b) The mock orange; -- popularly so called because its stems were formerly used as pipestems.

Webster 1913