Primrose Path

William Shakespeare coined the phrase in Hamlet (1602), where Ophelia warns her brother about "the primrose path of dalliance" versus "the steep and thorny way to heaven." Shakespeare used it again in Macbeth (c. 1606), referencing "the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire." The imagery alludes to Matthew 7:13—the wide, pleasant road to destruction versus the narrow, difficult path to salvation. "Primrose" derives from Latin flor di primavera (first flower of spring).