c. 1200,flour, alsoflur,flor,floer,floyer,flowre, "the blossom of a plant; a flowering plant," from Old Frenchflor "flower, blossom; heyday, prime; fine flour; elite; innocence, virginity" (12c., Modern Frenchfleur), from Latinflorem (nominativeflos) "flower" (source of Italianfiore, Spanishflor), from PIE root*bhel- (3) "to thrive, bloom."

From late 14c. in English as "blossoming time," also, figuratively, "prime of life, height of one's glory or prosperity, state of anything that may be likened to the flowering state of a plant." As "the best, the most excellent; the best of its class or kind; embodiment of an ideal," early 13c. (of persons, mid-13c. of things); for exampleflour of milk "cream" (early 14c.); especially "wheat meal after bran and other coarse elements have been removed, the best part of wheat" (mid-13c.). Modern spelling and full differentiation fromflour (n.) is from late 14c.

In the "blossom of a plant" sense it ousted its Old English cognateblostm (seeblossom (n.)). Also used from Middle English as a symbol of transitoriness (early 14c.); "a beautiful woman" (c. 1300); "virginity" (early 14c.).Flower-box is from 1818.Flower-arrangement is from 1873.Flower child "gentle hippie" is from 1967.

"the edible part of ground grain;" Middle Englishmēle, from Old Englishmelu, from Proto-Germanic*melwan "grind" (source also of Old Frisianmele "meal," Old Saxonmelo, Middle Dutchmele, Dutchmeel, Old High Germanmelo, GermanMehl, Old Norsemjöl "meal;" literally "what is ground;" Old Saxon, Old High German, Gothicmalan, Germanmahlen "to grind"), from PIE root*mele- "to crush, grind." The verb form is not found in Old English. Forms with an-a- begin in late Middle English. "Now commonly understood to exclude the product of wheat (this being called FLOUR)" [OED].