I still refuse to admit it's a weed. Anything that symbolizes warmer weather is on the way is a welcome addition to my yard.
Wait, not mosquitos.
Dandelions evolved about thirty million years ago in Eurasia.
They were used by humans for food and herbalism for much of recorded history.
The English name dandelion is a corruption of the French dent de lion meaning lion's tooth, referring to the coarsely-toothed leaves. The names of the plant have the same meaning in several other European languages, such as Italian dente di leone, Spanish diente de león, Portuguese dente-de-leão, Norwegian Løvetann, and German Löwenzahn.
In modern French the plant is named pissenlit, which means "urinate in bed", apparently referring to its diuretic properties. Likewise, "pissabeds" is an English folkname for this plant, piscialletto in Italian and in Spanish it is known as the meacamas.