Bachelor’s Buttons

Several flowers are so called. Red Bachelor’s Buttons, the double red campion; yellow Bachelor’s Buttons, the “upright crowfoot”; white Bachelor’s Buttons, the white ranunculus and white campion.

“The similitude these flowers have to the jaggod cloath buttons anciently worne … gave occasion … to call them Bachelour’s Buttons.”—Gerard: Herbal.

Or else from a custom still sometimes observed by rustics of carrying the flower in their pockets to know how they stand with their sweethearts. If the flower dies, it is a bad omen; but if it does not fade, they may hope for the best.

To wear bachelor’s buttons. To remain a bachelor. (See above.)

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.