| 释义 |
gingerbread|ˈdʒɪndʒəbrɛd|
Forms: α. 3 gingebrar, 4 -bras. β. 4 gingebreed, gyngebrede, 5, 8–9 Sc. gingebred, 6 gingbreade, gynbred. γ. 5 gyngerbrede, 6– gingerbread.
[ad. OF. gingembras, gingimbrat (whence MDu. gingebraes, -baers, late ON. gingibráð, in Dicts. erron. -brauð) preserved ginger, ad. med.L. *gingi(m)brāt-um, neut. ppl. a. (perh. in pharmaceutical use for some medicinal preparation; Du Cange has the form gingibretum), f. med.Lat. gingiber ginger. The 3rd syllable was early confounded with bread, and the insertion of an r in the 2nd syllable completed the semblance of a compound word.]
1.
†a. In early examples app.: Preserved ginger.
b. From the 15th c. onwards: A kind of plain cake, compounded with treacle, and highly flavoured with ginger. Formerly made into shapes of men, animals, letters of the alphabet, etc., which were often gilded.
1299Durham MS. Burs. Roll, In ij Gurdis de Gingebrar, xxvjs. viijd. 1302–3Ibid., In vij pixidibus de Gingebras. 1352–3Ibid., Et in duabus copulis de Pynyonade et de Gyngebrede. c1386Chaucer Sir Thopas 142 They sette hym Roial spicerye And Gyngebreed. c1430Two Cookery-bks. i. 35 Gyngerbrede. Take a quart of hony..Safroun, pouder Pepir..gratyd Brede [etc.; ginger is not mentioned]. 1555Machyn Diary 99 Dyssys of spyssys and frut, as marmelad, gynbred. 1573–80Baret Alv. C. 10 A kinde of cake or paste made to comfort the stomacke: ginger bread, mustaceum. 1613Beaum. & Fl. Coxcomb iv. vii, Fetch two or three grating loaves out of the kitching, to make gingerbread of. 1663Butler Hud. i. ii. 546 Some cry'd the Covenant instead Of Pudding-pies and Ginger⁓bread. 1708W. King Cookery 346 The enticing gold of ginger-bread. 1771Smollett Humph. Cl. 3 June, She don't yet know her letters..but I will bring her the A B C in gingerbread. 1782Cowper Table T. 555 As if the poet, purposing to wed, Should carve himself a wife in ginger⁓bread. 1795Times 27 Oct. 3/1 Several young Gentlemen of the Guards..have sent for the Alphabet, in gingerbread. 1833Marryat P. Simple ix, The white tents and booths, the sun shining so bright, and the shining gilt gingerbread. 1851Mayhew Lond. Lab. I. 200 The principal..toy ginger⁓bread that is vended is the ‘cock in breeches’; a formidable looking bird, with his nether garments of gold. 1886J. K. Jerome Idle Thoughts 158 Our boyish days look very merry to us now, all nutting, hoop, and gingerbread.
2. fig., esp. as the type of something showy and unsubstantial. † knight, lord, man of gingerbread (obs.): app. terms of burlesque or ironical laudation. cake and gingerbread: something easy and pleasant. to take the gilt off the gingerbread: to deprive something of its attractive qualities.
1605Tryall Chev. iv. i. in Bullen O. Pl. III. 326 Anticke; thou lyest: and thou wert a knight of ginger-bread I am no Anticke. 1664J. Wilson Cheats iv. v, If I marrie, I promise you it shall not be Tyro, 'Tis such a piece of Ginger⁓bread! 1690Crowne Eng. Friar ii, Oh! lead me to her, Ile behave my self like any Ginger-bread. 1763Churchill Ghost iv. Poems I. 311 Who, quite a man of Gingerbread, Savour'd in talk, in dress and phyz, More of another world than this. 1789Wolcot (P. Pindar) Ep. to falling Minist. Wks. 1812 II. 125 Those Lords of Gingerbread, a gaudy crew. 1841Lever C. O'Malley vi. 32 The marshalling a room full of mandarins was ‘cake and gingerbread’ to ushering a Galway party in to dinner. 1884Pall Mall G. 9 Sept. 3/2 By the time the Germans have undertaken one or two of those punitive police expeditions..a good deal of gilt will be rubbed off the gingerbread with which they are at present so overjoyed.
3. a. A local name for a kind of ironstone (see quot. 1829). b. A local (Sc.) name for a kind of tansy.
1829Glover Hist. Derby I. 61 Ironstone, in finger-shaped nodules, consisting of concentric laminæ (Gingerbread). 1882Proc. Berw. Nat. Club IX. 461 The Rev. I. F. Bigge found..a form of the common tansy with much subdivided foliage..In Scotland it is called ‘gingerbread’.
4. slang. Money.
a1700in B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew. 1785in Grose Dict. Vulg. Tongue. 1834H. Ainsworth Rookwood II. iii. v. 362 Your old dad, Sir Piers..had the gingerbread, that I know. 1864Standard 13 Dec. 3/2 We do not find..the word ‘gingerbread’ used for money, as we have heard it both before and within the last six months.
5. attrib. and Comb.
a. simple attributive, as gingerbread-cake, gingerbread-dog, gingerbread-horse, gingerbread-letter, gingerbread-nut, gingerbread-stand, † gingerbread-temse.
b. objective, as gingerbread-baker.
c. similative, as gingerbread-complexion; gingerbread-gilt adj. Also gingerbread-nut, a small round button-like cake of gingerbread; † gingerbread-office, a privy; gingerbread-palm, gingerbread-tree, (a) = doum-palm; (b) Parinarium macrophyllum, a West African fruit-tree with a farinaceous fruit; gingerbread-plum, the fruit of Parinarium macrophyllum; also the tree itself; gingerbread-trap (slang), the mouth.
1760Foote Minor i. Wks. 1799 I. 236 A patriot *gingerbread-baker from the Borough. 1855Motley Dutch Rep. (1861) III. 290 A man..eminent both as a gingerbread baker and a sword-player.
1737Wesley Wks. (1872) I. 68 Having had no food all day, except a *gingerbread cake.
1839–40W. Irving Wolfert's R. (1855) 26 He was of a large frame, a *ginger-bread complexion, strong features.
1841–4Emerson Ess., Nature Wks. (Bohn) I. 23 The child..abandoned to a..lead dragoon, or a *gingerbread dog.
1855Cornwall 63 Stiff Madonnas with *gingerbread-gilt aureoles.
1844Emerson Misc. Papers, Tantalus Wks. (Bohn) III. 319 A gilt *gingerbread horse.
1769Public Advertiser 15 Sept. 3/4 Go to the Nursery, and there teach little Misses to read *Gingerbread Letters.
1775J. Jekyll Corr. (1894) 38 We..beg the receipt of your *gingerbread nuts. 1859Jephson Brittany xvi. 271 Country-people..were playing at a sort of roulette for gingerbread-nuts and macaroons.
a1643W. Cartwright Lady-Errant v. i, There's no great need of souldiers; their Camp's No larger than a *Ginger-bread-office.
1863Speke Discov. Nile v. 101 The rich flat district of Mininga, where the *gingerbread-palm grows abundantly.
1824J. Sabine Edible Fruits of Sierra Leone in Trans. Hort. Soc. V. 452 *Gingerbread Plum, Parinarium macrophyllum.
1780–1808Mayne Siller Gun ii. xvii, Craems, *ginge-bread-stawns..And raree-shows, Entic'd young sparks to entertain And treat their joes.
c1562Richmond Wills (Surtees 1853) 163 One *gynger breade tempes, vjd.
1865Dickens Mut. Fr. i. v, To bait his *gingerbread-trap.
1829Loudon Encycl. Plants 298 Parinarium macrophyllum, *Gingerbread Tree. 1866Treas. Bot. 531/2.
6. attrib. passing into adj.: Resembling the figures made of (gilt) gingerbread; hence, showy, tawdry. gingerbread work: orig. applied by sailors to the carved and gilded decorations of a ship; hence to architectural or other ornament of a gaudy and tasteless kind; cf. ginger-work (ginger n. 7).
1748Smollett Rod. Random. iii, Lookee..if you come athwart me, 'ware your gingerbread-work; I'll be foul of your quarter, d―n me. 1766― Trav. Let. xxx. II. 104 Yet the rooms are too small, and too much decorated with carving and gilding, which is a kind of gingerbread work. 1804Naval Chron. XI. 408 As the sailors term it, there is an abundance of gingerbread work. 1807Sir R. Wilson Jrnl. 9 July in Life (1862) II. viii. 302 Marshals of France; but disguised by their gingerbread clothes. 1807–8W. Irving Salmag. ii. (1811) I. 38 Two of those strapping heroes of the theatre, who figure in the retinues of our ginger-bread kings and queens. Ibid. v. 87 The gingerbread finery of a sword-belt. 1813Hodgson & Laird Beaut. Eng. & Wales XII. i. 89 Little remains of this ancient bulwark except a strong gate⁓way. the approach to which has been lately flanked with bastions, in the true gingerbread style. 1816J. Gilchrist Philos. Etym. 197 Such paste-board, gingerbread fortifications of the Monkish Theory. 1826in Cobbett Rur. Rides (1885) II. 105 New gingerbread ‘places of worship’, as they are called. 1833Lamb Lett. (1888) II. 286 What can make her so fond of a gingerbread watch? 1836T. Hook G. Gurney ii, Gingerbread pantomimes, culled from Mother Bunch. 1840R. H. Dana Bef. Mast xxii. 66 There was no foolish gilding and gingerbread work to take the eye of landsmen and passengers. 1870H. Meade N. Zealand 289 A gingerbread stockade of posts and coral. 1873Mrs. Whitney Other Girls vi. (1876) 97 A little enticing ginger⁓bread work about the eaves and porch. 1874L. Carr Jud. Gwynne I. i. 38 Some people would have crammed it full of gingerbread upholstery, all gilt and gawdy.
Hence ˈgingerbread v. trans., to provide gingerbread for; in quot. fig. ˈgingerbready a., (a) of or pertaining to gingerbread; (b) gingerbread-like, in a trivial and showy style.
1844Tupper Heart xiii. 135 His distant relative's good feeling..served indeed to gild the future, but did not avail to gingerbread the present. 1867Motley Corr. 19 Sept. (1889) II. 292 But it is altogether too smart, gilt ginger⁓bready, for my taste. 1881Whitehead Hops 70 The peculiar sweet gingerbready smell. 1883World 3 Oct. 14/1 A monument to the Duke, which is the most gingerbready and rococo thing in Europe. |