| 释义 |
gooseberry|ˈgʊzbərɪ|
Forms: 6 gose, gows-, 6–8 goos-, 7 gous-, 9 Sc. guse-, 6– goose-: and see berry.
[Prob. f. goose n. + berry n.
The grounds on which plants and fruits have received names associating them with animals are so commonly inexplicable, that the want of appropriateness in the meaning affords no sufficient ground for assuming that the word is an etymologizing corruption, e.g. of Du. kruisbezie, G. krausbeere, or of a hypothetical *gorseberry or *groseberry (see groser, groset); though the last derives some little support from the existence of the form gozell for *grosell.]
1. The edible berry or fruit of any of the thorny species of the genus Ribes, the best known and most commonly cultivated of which is R. Grossularia; also the plant or shrub itself (more fully gooseberry-bush, gooseberry-tree).
c1532G. Du Wes Introd. Fr. in Palsgr. 912 Gose berrys, groiselles. 1573Tusser Husb. xvi. (1878) 41 The Goose⁓bery, Respis and Roses. 1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, i. ii. 196 All the other gifts appertinent to man (as the malice of this Age shapes them) are not woorth a Goose berry. 1620Venner Via Recta iii. 59 It is very good..to stuffe them with sowre-grapes, or vnripe-gooseberries. 1663P. Henry Diaries (1882) 131 Trees received from Mr. Hammond. 6 Apples. 6 Corans. 6 Goosberryes. 1669Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 116 Goosberries being through ripe, taste the most like Grapes of any of our English Fruits. 1740Somerville Hobbinol iii. 42 Crystal Gooseberries Are piled on Heaps; in vain the Parent-Tree Defends her luscious Fruit with pointed Spears. 1859Thompson Gardener's Assist. 380 In the gooseberry and currant, the leaves have chiefly performed their office when the fruit is ripened off.
†2. Extended to the other species of Ribes; see currant 2. Obs.
1578Lyte Dodoens v. lxx. 635 The Ribes or beyond sea gooseberries. Ibid. vi. xx. 682 The blacke gooseberies growe of them selues in moyst vntoyled places. Ibid. 683 Ribes rubrum; in English Redde Gooseberries, beyond-sea Gooseberries, Bastard Corinthes. 1655Moufet & Bennet Health's Improv. (1746) 319 Red Gooseberries.
3. Applied to various shrubs resembling the gooseberry (sense 1) in some way, as American gooseberry, Heterotrichum patens or H. niveum; Barbados gooseberry, Pereskia aculeata; Cape gooseberry, Physalis edulis or P. peruviana; Coromandel gooseberry, Averrhoa Carambola; little gooseberry (Austral.), Buchanania mangoides; Otaheite or Tahiti gooseberry, Phyllanthus distichus.
1847Leichhardt Jrnl. xiv. 497 The little gooseberry-tree (Coniogeton Arborescens). 1864Grisebach Flora W. Ind. 784 Gooseberry, American...Gooseberry, Barbadoes. 1866Treas. Bot. 543/1 Coromandel Gooseberry...Tahiti Gooseberry. 1882J. Smith Dict. Pop. Names Plants s.v. Winter Cherry, The Cape Gooseberry..a native of tropical America.
4. Short for gooseberry-wine. Also applied jocularly to inferior or spurious brands of champagne.
1766Goldsm. Vic. W. v, The fond mother..insisted upon her landlord's stepping in, and taking a glass of her goose⁓berry. 1821Lamb Elia Ser. i. All Fools' Day, Fill us a cup of that sparkling gooseberry—we will drink no wise, melancholy, politic port on this day. 1850Thackeray Pendennis iv, Pen could not but respect Foker's connoisseurship as he pronounced the champagne to be condemned gooseberry. 1893K. Deighton Lamb's Ess. Elia 130 Whether used literally of gooseberry wine, or of champagne, inferior brands of which wine are often spoken of contemptuously as ‘gooseberry’ [etc.].
5. A chaperon or one who ‘plays propriety’ with a pair of lovers, esp. in to play gooseberry. (Cf. gooseberry-picker in 8.)
1837J. F. Palmer Devonsh. Gloss., Gubbs, a go-between or gooseberry. ‘To play gooseberry’ is to give a pretext to two young people to be together. 1870R. Broughton Red as Rose I. 169 Gooseberry I may be..but, at all events, I won't be instrumental in making myself so. 1881W. E. Norris Matrim. I. 21 Let the old woman choose between playing gooseberry or loitering behind alone. 1889G. Allen Tents of Shem II. 118 Madame didn't know a single word of English and was, therefore, admirably adapted..for enacting with effect the part of the common or garden gooseberry.
6. a. slang. old gooseberry = the deuce (deuce2 a); esp. to play († up) old gooseberry, to make havoc († see also quot. 1796).
1796Grose's Dict. Vulg. Tongue (ed. 3) s.v., He played up old gooseberry among them; said of a person who, by force or threats, suddenly puts an end to a riot or disturbance. 1827Sporting Mag. XXI. 144 Several of the gentlemen rode over the dressed grounds and played old gooseberry with them. 1844Dickens Mart. Chuz. xxxviii, I'll play Old Gooseberry with the office, and make you glad to buy me out at a good high figure. 1865H. Kingsley Hillyars & Burtons III. xiii. 149 You should have a tea⁓stick, and take them [dogs] by the tail..and lay on like old gooseberry. 1883Ld. R. Gower My Remin. II. xxvii. 249 A great gale..played old gooseberry with the boats.
b. gooseberry bush: used allusively in reference to the explanation of child-birth sometimes given in answer to a child's question.
1944Brahms & Simon Titania has Mother xiii. 146 Fairy Peaseblossom..had never thought she would find herself hankering after one of Simple Simon's curious questions, but now she found she simply couldn't wait for the next one—even if it should be ‘but why a goose⁓berry bush again’ ? 1952V. Wilkins King Reluctant i. iii. 47 When girls come home and tell their fond relations that they have just found a baby..under a gooseberry bush, you know what the world says, don't you? 1956B. Goolden At Foot of Hills x. 234 Perhaps she's one of the gooseberry bush brigade and is horrified by the precocity of the modern young. Or is it just because she loathes babies? 1964G. L. Cohen What's Wrong with Hospitals? iv. 69 Middle-class mothers are an anxious lot; they have no precedent on child-rearing which hasn't been kicked into limbo along with gooseberry bushes. 1969Guardian 28 Oct. 11/5 Many children said they were glad to know what happened, and not be fobbed off with a lot of gooseberry bushes.
7. attrib. and Comb.
a. attributive, as gooseberry-bush, gooseberry-cream, gooseberry-fair, gooseberry-feast, gooseberry-jam, gooseberry-jelly, gooseberry-pudding, gooseberry-sauce, gooseberry-show, gooseberry-tart, gooseberry-tree, gooseberry-wine.
b. objective, as gooseberry-grower.
c. similative, as † gooseberry-cheek; also gooseberry-eye (cf. gooseberry-eyed in 8); gooseberry-orb = prec.
1530Palsgr. 226/2 *Goseberry busshe, groseillier. 1548Turner Names of Herbes 88 Vua crispa is also called Grossularia, in english a Groser bushe, a Goosebery bush. 1771Richardson in Phil. Trans. LXI. 183 On the goosberry-bush and currant the same Aphides may be found.
a1658Cleveland Poems (1677) 86 First on her *Goosberry Cheeks I mine eys Blasted.
1706Closet Rarities (N.), To make *Gooseberry-Cream.
1789Wolcot (P. Pindar) Subj. for Painters Wks. 1812 II. 174 How sweetly roll your *Gooseberry Eyes. 1886Ruskin Præterita I. 422 A portly gentleman with gooseberry eyes.
1825Hone Every-day Bk. I. 437 What are called the ‘*Gooseberry fairs’ by the wayside, whereat heats are run upon half-killed horses, or..donkeys.
1796Sporting Mag. VIII. 274 The late Bath annual *gooseberry feast.
1834–43Southey Doctor cxxxix. (1848) 348/2 He was much esteemed among the Class of *Gooseberry Growers.
1846‘A Lady’ Jewish Man. viii. 165 Strawberry jam... By this recipe also are made raspberry, currant, *goose⁓berry, apricot, and other jams. 1861Mrs. Beeton Bk. Househ. Managem. 778 (heading) Gooseberry jam.
Ibid. 779 (heading) *Gooseberry jelly.
1803J. Porter Thaddeus (1826) III. v. 102 When [she] compared..Pembroke's dark and ever-animated eyes, with the *gooseberry orbs of Lascelles.
1769Mrs. Raffald Eng. Housekpr. (1778) 183 *Gooseberry Pudding.
1845E. Acton Mod. Cookery iv. 137 (heading) *Gooseberry sauce for mackerel.
1796Sporting Mag. VIII. 274 The annual *gooseberry shew, held at the house of Mr. Robert Huxley. 1859Thompson Gardener's Assist. 559 The great number of gooseberry shows held in Lancashire, Cheshire, and Yorkshire.
1785A. Ellicott in Life & Lett. (1908) 44 Our waiters are now preparing some *Goose-Berry Tart. 1845Budd Dis. Liver 185 After imprudently eating gooseberry tart, she was seized with violent pain.
c1532G. Du Wes Introd. Fr. in Palsgr. 914 *Gowsbery tre, groiselier. 1707Curios. in Husb. & Gard. 197 Fig-trees, Quince-Trees, Goosberry-Trees.
1707Sir J. More England's Interest (title-p.), How to Make..*Gooseberry, and Mulberry Wines. 1849Gooseberry wine [see marigold 1 a]. 1971Times 10 Nov. (Wine Suppl.) 3/6 Skilfully made gooseberry wine can be successfully passed off as champagne to the uninitiated.
8. Special comb.: gooseberry-caterpillar, ? the caterpillar of the gooseberry-moth; gooseberry-eyed a. (see quot.); gooseberry-louse = harvest-bug; gooseberry-moth, the magpie-moth (Abraxas grossulariata); gooseberry-picker, one who picks gooseberries, colloq. a chaperon (so gooseberry-picking vbl. n.); gooseberry-pie, (a) a pie made of gooseberries, etc.; (b) (see quot. 1879); gooseberry-season, the time when gooseberries are ripe, esp. in big gooseberry season, the time of year when the newspapers have plenty of space to record trifles; gooseberry-wig (see quot.).
1882Garden 6 May 319/3 A sharp look out must now be kept for *Gooseberry caterpillars.
1796Grose's Dict. Vulg. Tongue (ed. 3), *Gooseberry-eyed, one with dull grey eyes, like boiled gooseberries.
1856Mrs. Carlyle Lett. II. 290 The new insect called ‘harvest bugs’, or ‘*gooseberry lice’..imported in some American plants.
1816Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xxvi. (1818) II. 452 The caterpillars of the *gooseberry-moth.
1868Yates Rock Ahead ii. ix, In his capacity of *gooseberry-picker, Lord S. was led..into anything but pleasant pastures. 1888J. Payn Myst. Mirbridge III. xli. 128 He had a sort of ‘Don't mind me’ way with him that made him quite the perfection of a ‘gooseberry-picker’.
1747H. Glasse Cookery 114 A custard is very good with the *gooseberry pie. 1766Goldsm. Vic. W. vii, Go help your mother to make the gooseberry pie. 1879Britten & Holland Plant-n., Gooseberry pie, Epilobium hirsutum L., from the smell of the leaves.
1787‘G. Gambado’ Acad. Horsemen (1809) 26 How to make up a good stout..dose of physic for your wife or servants, in the *gooseberry season.
1796Grose's Dict. Vulg. Tongue (ed. 3), *Gooseberry wig, a large frizzled wig; perhaps, from a supposed likeness to a gooseberry bush. |