| 释义 |
▪ I. privet1|ˈprɪvɪt|
Also 6–7 -ett(e, 7 -ate; β. 6 privy, -ie.
[Instanced from 16th c.: origin unknown; cf. the synonyms prim-print, primp, and prim. See Note below.]
1. A bushy evergreen shrub, Ligustrum vulgare (family Oleaceæ), a native of Europe, having elliptic-lanceolate smooth dark-green leaves, and clusters of small white flowers, succeeded by small shining black berries; much used for garden hedges.
1542Elyot, Ligustrum..this tree dothe growe in watry places, as wyllowes and salowes do, and bearith a blacke fruite lyke to an elder tree; they whiche doo take it for the bushe callyd Priuet, be moche deceyued. 1548Turner Names of Herbes E j b, Ligustrum is called in..englishe Prim print or priuet, though Eliote more boldely than lernedly, defended the contrary. 1578Lyte Dodoens vi. xxv. 689 Priuet is a base plante, very seldome growing vpright. 1634–5Brereton Trav. (Chetham Soc.) 45 Cornowlee makes an hedge like privett. 1779Mason Eng. Gard. iii. 114 The hardy Thorn, Holly, or Box, Privet, or Pyracanth. 1842Tennyson Walking to Mail 48 A skin As clean and white as privet when it flowers. 1859W. S. Coleman Woodlands (1862) 132 The clustered white flowers of the Privet appear about midsummer, and are very ornamental.
β1573Tusser Husb. (1878) 33 Set priuie or prim, Set boxe like him. 1591in Lyly's Wks. (1902) I. 433 The 3. and last was a Snayl mount [spiral ascent], rising to foure circles of greene priuie hedges. 1593Breton Daffodils & Primroses 3/2 The borders round about, are set with priuie sweete.
2. In southern U.S. = swamp privet: see 3.
1890in Cent. Dict.
3. With distinctive prefix, applied to other species of Ligustrum; also, to other shrubs, chiefly evergreens, in some respect resembling the true Privet; as barren privet, Rhamnus Alaternus, an evergreen shrub of S. Europe; California, Japan, or Japanese privet, Ligustrum japonicum; Egyptian privet, the henna of the East, bearing panicles of small white sweet-scented flowers; evergreen privet, any evergreen species of the genus Rhamnus; mock privet, the evergreen genus Phillyrea, family Oleaceæ; Jasmine Box; swamp privet, Adelia (Forestiera) acuminata, family Oleaceæ, a small evergreen tree of the southern United States, of the same order as the Common Privet, and closely resembling it in general appearance.
1597Gerarde Herbal iii. liv. 1209 Of mocke Priuet. 1 Phillyrea angustifolia. 1611Cotgr., Alaterne, fruitlesse, or barren Priuet. 1629Parkinson Paradisus 603 Alaternus. The euer greene Priuet. 1678Phillips (ed. 4) s.v., There is also a sort called Mock-privet, in Latin Philyrea. 1760J. Lee Introd. Bot. App. 324 Evergreen Privet, Rhamnus. 1866Treas. Bot. 928/2 Privet, Barren, Rhamnus Alaternus. ―, Egyptian, Lawsonia alba. Ibid. 665/2 Henna is the Persian name..in England it is often called Egyptian Privet. 1868Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869) 197 For..easy propagation, and ample foliage of shining deep-green color, there is no plant superior to the Japan privet (Ligustrum Japonicum). 1887Nicholson's Dict. Gard., Phillyrea,..Jasmine Box; Mock Privet. 1901Mohr Plant Life Alabama (Contrib. fr. U.S. National Herbarium VI.) 667 Swamp Privet.
4. attrib. and Comb., as privet berry, privet blossom, privet bush, privet flower, privet hedge, privet leaf; privet-like, privet-scented adjs.; † privet-fly, an old name of a Plume-moth, Pterophorus; privet hawk (-moth), a large species of hawk-moth which deposits its eggs on the privet; so privet-hawk caterpillar.
1688R. Holme Armoury ii. 81/2 *Privet Berries grow in bunches, and are all black.
1870Morris Earthly Par. I. i. 356 And there she stood apart,..pale as *privet blossom is in June.
1650T. Bayly Herba Parietis 125 If all yonder regiments were but so many *private bushes.
1572in Feuillerat Revels Q. Eliz. (1908) 165 Pinkes and *privett fflowers. 1749J. Martyn tr. Virg., Buc. ii. 18 The white privet flowers drop on the ground [orig. alba ligustra cadunt].
1753Chambers Cycl. Supp., *Privet-fly, in natural history, the name of a species of fly very common on the shrub from whence it has its name. It is called the erinopterus.
1826Kirby & Sp. Entomol. III. xxxi. 266 *Privet-hawkmoth (Sphinx Ligustri). 1859W. S. Coleman Woodlands (1862) 133 The Privet..being the chief food of the caterpillar of that very beautiful insect the Privet Hawk Moth. 1591*Priuie hedges [see 1 β]. 1856Mrs. Browning Aur. Leigh i. 568 As green as any privet-hedge a bird Might choose to build in.
1831Landor Misc. Wks. 1846 II. 633 Thro' the pale-glimmering *privet-scented lane.
[Note. Privet has been suggested to be a corruption of *primet, a word erroneously said in Prior's Names of Plants to occur in the Grete Herbal as a name of the primrose; no such word occurs there. Another suggestion is that privett(e, privie, are the same as private, privy, and applied to this shrub from its use in making hedges to cut off a private part of a garden, to conceal dung-heaps, etc.; but of this there is no evidence. Privet or Privett occurs more than once as a place-name in Hampshire, and the name Pryfetes floda, app. in that county, is found in the O.E. Chron.; but no connexion of this with the shrub is known. Prevet also occurs in a 13th c. deed, where it is doubtful whether it is a proper name: 1256 June 8 Ancient Deed P.R.O.A. 8635, In omnibus mariscis qui pertinent ad villam de Farlingetone [Farlington, Havant, Hants] excepto..parco et excepto cooperto de preuet et Crofta que fuit Rogeri le Lung, que est contra portam curie. If we had other evidence of the name of the shrub in ME., it would be tempting to render this ‘covert of privet’ (as is done in Catal. Anc. Deeds 1902, IV. 338).]
▪ II. † privet2 Obs.
Also 6 provet.
[Corruption of provet, from F. éprouvette, in 16th c. esprouvette, f. é-, esprouver to try, search out.]
A surgical instrument for searching a wound; a probe.
1597A. M. tr. Guillemeau's Fr. Chirurg. b ij b/2 The Provet, or soundinge irone..we sounde the depthe of the fistle with this sounding irone. Ibid. b iv b/2 The Privet, or Needle to religate the fistles. Ibid. 6/2 The bullet may be felt with the privet or searchinge iron.
▪ III. privet
obs. form of private. |