flour

Until about 1830, this word was spelled the same as 'flower,' because it named the finest portion of ground grain — the best part, the 'bloom' of the wheat, much as French speakers called it fleur de farine, or fine fleur.

For centuries the word for the flour we bake with and the word for a blooming plant were spelled identically, both pointing to the idea of something being the best or finest part of a thing. Only around 1830 did English split the spelling in two, giving grain-flour its own distinct form.

It's a doublet of 'flower,' 'fleur,' and 'flor' — all the same root word wearing different spellings across English and French. It also once elbowed aside the older native English word 'meal,' which had covered the same ground.