| 释义 |
heath, n.|hiːθ|
Forms: 1–3 hæð, 3–4 heþ, 4–6 heth, -e, heeth, 6 heyth, 4– heath.
[OE. hǽð (:—*haiþi-), corresponding, exc. in the formative suffix, with MLG. hêde, MDu. hêde, heide, Du. heide, hei, OHG. heida (only as in sense 2), MHG., G. heide, ON. heiðr, Goth. haiþi fem., gen. haiþjôs field, open untilled land, pasture, open country, from pre-Teut. root *kait-. A cognate has been suggested in L. bū-cētum cow-pasture.]
1. a. Open uncultivated ground; an extensive tract of waste land; a wilderness; now chiefly applied to a bare, more or less flat, tract of land, naturally clothed with low herbage and dwarf shrubs, esp. with the shrubby plants known as heath, heather or ling.
In ME. often contrasted with holt or wood.
a1000Cædmon's Exod. 118 Þy læs him westengryre, har hæð..ferhð ᵹetwæf(de). c1205Lay. 12819, I wude i wilderne, inne hæðe & inne uærne. c1330R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 8864 Ffro stede to stede þey fledde to sculk, On heþ & hilles to hyde in hulk. c1386Chaucer Prol. 6 Whan Zephirus..Inspired hath in euery holt and heeth The tendre croppes. c1400Destr. Troy 1350 The Troiens..Fleddon..Ouer hilles & hethes into holte woddes. 1412–20Lydg. Chron. Troy i. iii, On holte and hethe the merye somers daye. 1530Palsgr. 231/1 Hethe a playne, lande. 1535Coverdale Jer. xii. 12 The distroyers come ouer the heeth euery waye [1611 upon all high places through the wilderness]. 1568Grafton Chron. II. 383 [They] met the King on the Hethe on this side Shene. 1626Bacon Sylva §834 Some Woods of Orenges, and Heathes of Rose Mary, will Smell a great way into the Sea. 1674N. Cox Gentl. Recreat. (1677) 46 As for high Downs or Heaths, the best are about Marlborough, Salisbury, Cirencester, and Lincoln. 1784–92J. Belknap Hist. New Hampsh. in Morse Amer. Geog. (1796) I. 366 A large area, called the plain. It is a dry heath, composed of rocks covered with moss. 1792A. Young Trav. France (1794) 20 An uninteresting flat, with many heaths of ling. 1815Duc de Levis Eng. 19th Cent. I. 12 A Common..the English distinguish these uncultivated lands..into heaths and pastures. 1872E. W. Robertson Hist. Ess. 246 At a comparatively recent period..in many parts of England..the Common of modern days was known as ‘the heath’ or ‘the waste’.
†b. transf. Part of a garden left more or less in the wild state. Obs.
1625Bacon Ess., Gardens (Arb.) 558 Gardens..to be diuided into..A Greene in the Entrance; A Heath or Desart in the Going forth; And the Garden in the middest.
2. A name given to plants and shrubs found upon heaths or in open or waste places.
†a. In early times vaguely applied or identified. Obs.
a700Epinal Gloss. 1007 Thymus, haeth. a800Erfurt Gloss. 269 Calomacus, haeth. Ibid. 2012 Thymus, haedth. a1387Sinon. Barthol. (Anecd. Oxon.) 30 Mirix, Mirica, idem, bruer heath, sive genesta. Ibid. 33 Paliurus, heth.
b. The ordinary name for undershrubs of the Linnæan genus Erīca, of which the common native species are E. (now Calluna) vulgaris, common heath, heather, or ling, E. cinerea fine-leaved heath (the ‘common heath’ of some parts), and E. tetralix cross-leaved heath. By botanical writers sometimes limited to the modern genus Erica, sometimes extended to other cognate genera of Ericaceæ.
The name heath seems native to the south and middle of England: see heather. Since the ‘common heath’ is now separated from the genus Erica, botanical writers sometimes distinguish it from the ‘true heaths’ by its northern names ling and heather; but locally all three names include all the native species. Of early botanical writers, Turner mentions only E. vulgaris, Lyte (transl. Dodoens), E. vulgaris and tetralix, distinguished as ‘long heath’ and ‘smal heath’.
c1000Sax. Leechd. I. 354 Wið liþa sare..smeoce mid hæþe, and þæt ylce on wine drince. c1325Know Thyself 30 in E.E.P. (1862) 131 What is al þat forþ is past Hit fareþ as fuir of heth. c1440Promp. Parv. 238/2 Hethe or lynge, fowaly, bruarium. 1548Turner Names of Herbes (E.D.S.) 35 Erice is called in greeke Ereice, it is named in english Heth, hather, or ling..it groweth on frith and wyld mores; some vse to make brusshes of heath. 1578Lyte Dodoens vi. xvi. 677 There is in this Countrie two kindes of Heath, one..is called long Heath. The other..smal Heath. 1610Shakes. Temp. i. i. 70 Now would I giue a thousand furlongs of Sea, for an Acre of barren ground: Long heath, Browne firrs, anything. 1686Plot Staffordsh. 379 They frequently used the Erica vulgaris, heath, or ling instead of hopps to preserve their beer. 1728–46Thomson Spring 513 Oft with bolder wing they [bees] soaring dare The purple heath, or where the wild-thyme grows. 1794Martyn Rousseau's Bot. xix. 258 Common Heath..is distinguished by the anthers being terminated with an awn, and lying within the flower. Ibid., Fine-leaved Heath has crested anthers lying within the corolla. 1834M. Somerville Connect. Phys. Sc. xxvii. (1849) 307 Heaths are exclusively confined to the Old World. 1858R. Hogg Veg. Kingd. 482 The Common Heath, or Ling, of the hills of Britain, is Calluna vulgaris..With Heath, cottages are thatched, besoms are made, and faggots are composed to burn in ovens. Ibid. 483 The Heaths [of] our greenhouses are all natives of the Cape of Good Hope, and embrace upwards of six hundred species and varieties.
c. With distinctive additions, applied to other species of Erica, and allied genera; and popularly to some other plants.
The three less common British species are the ciliated heath, Cornish heath, and Mediterranean heaths (E. ciliaris, vagans, Mediterranea); other species are Sicilian heath, Spanish heath, tree heath, and winter h. American false heath, Hudsonia ericoides. black-berried h. the Crowberry, Empetrum nigrum; Irish or St. Dabeoc's h., Menziesia polifolia; Australian h., Epacris grandiflora; Otago h., Leucopogon Fraseri; sea heath, Frankenia levis; Tasmanian h., Epacris exserta. † heath of Jericho, Rose of Jericho, Anastatica Hierochuntina.
1617Minsheu Ductor, Heath of Jericho, erica Hiericontœa, quod similitudinem aliquam habeat cum erica.
d. In two passages (Jer. xvii. 6, xlviii. 6) in Coverdale's and later versions of the Bible, applied to some desert plant, identified variously with Tamarisk, or with Savin, Juniperus Sabina.
1535Coverdale Jer. xvii. 6 He shall be like the heeth, that groweth in the wildernes [1382 Wyclif iencian trees, 1388 bromes, 1611 heath, 1885 (R.V.) marg. Or, a tamarisk]. Ibid. xlviii. 6 Get you awaye..and be like vnto the heeth in y⊇ wildernes [Wyclif, 1611 and R.V. as before].
3. Short for heath butterfly, moth: see 5 c.
1827Butterfly Collector's Vade Mecum 68 Hipparchia Typhon, Scarce Heath. H. Pamphilus, Small Heath ..H. Tithonus, Large Heath. 1832J. Rennie Butterflies & Moths 101 The Brown Heath (F[idonia] atomaria, Haworth)..Common. Ibid. 102 The Grey Heath (F. ericetaria, Stephens) appears in August. 1871E. Newman Brit. Butterflies (1874) 93 The Large Heath, Epinephele Tithonus. Ibid. 101 The Small Heath, Cœnonympha Pamphilus.
4. attrib. and Comb.
a. simple attrib., as heath-bank, heath-besom, heath-broom, heath-bush, heath-field (a 1000), heath-fire, heath-flower, heath-ground, heath-honey, heath-land, heath-man, heath-mould, heath-mutton, heath-pony, heath-snail, heath-soil, heath-tribe.
b. obj. and obj. gen., as heath-cropping adj., heath-keeper, heath-tramper.
c. locative and instrumental, as heath-bred, heath-clad, heath-grown, heath-roofed, heath-thatched adjs.d. heath-like adj.
1813Coleridge Remorse iii. i, Stretched on the broad top of a sunny *heath-bank.
1610J. Heath Epigr. in Brit. Bibl. (1812) II. 250 That *Heath-bred Muse.
1874P.O. Lond. Trades Directory, *Heath Broom Makers.
1470–85Malory Arthur xxi. iv, Ryght soo came an adder oute of a lytel *hethe busshe.
1766J. Cunningham Day vii, On the *heath-clad hill.
c909Charter of Eadweard in Cod. Dipl. V. 177 Ðonan to higgeate; ðæt utt on ðone *hæðfeld.
1787G. White Selborne vii. 20 About March or April..vast *heath-fires are lighted up.
1810Scott Lady of L. i. xviii, A foot more light..Ne'er from the *heath-flower dashed the dew. 1824Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. (1863) 101 The ruddy glow of the heath-flower.
1523Fitzherb. Husb. §2 Some sande..and in many places *heeth grounde. 1653Walton Angler 222 Ploughing up heath⁓ground.
1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iv. (1586) 184 *Heath Hony, a wilde kind of Hony..being gathered..while the Heath is in floure.
1895St. James' Gaz. 10 Sept. 9/2 An auxiliary *heathkeeper in the employment of the London County Council.
1819Rees Cycl., Heath-plough, a plough for preparing *heath-land for planting. 1936Discovery Jan. 25/1 Only about 50,000 acres of Breckland remain at the present moment as heathland. 1954M. Beresford Lost Villages vi. 200 This was forest, scrub or rough heathland. 1966M. R. D. Foot SOE in France xii. 407 Bourgoin was too wily a fighter to be rounded up methodically in his heathland base.
1864Thoreau Cape Cod vii. (1894) 159 A barren, *heath-like plain.
1861Delamer Fl. Gard. 118 In pots, Heaths must have *heath-mould.
1771Smollett Humph. Cl. (1820) 166 As much superior in flavour..as my *heath-mutton is to that of St. James's Market.
1804J. Grahame Sabbath (1808) 67 Yon *heath-roofed shielin.
1832Carlyle Remin. i. 51 This little *heath-thatched house.
1853C. A. Johns Flowers of Field (1885) 392 Ericaceæ, the *Heath Tribe.
5. a. Special Combs.: heath-ale, -beer, a traditional beverage said to have been anciently brewed from the flowers of heather; heath-blooms, a name given by some to the plants of the Natural Order Ericaceæ; † heath-coal: see heathen-coal; heath-cropper, lit. one that crops or feeds on heath; a sheep or pony, living on open heath or down; hence, a person who inhabits a heath; heath-fowl = heath-bird; heath-game, grouse or moorfowl; heath-stone, see quots.; heath-tax, a tax to defray the expenses of repairing the course at Newmarket; heath-throstle, -thrush, the Ring Blackbird or Ring-ouzel, Turdus torquatus.
1801J. Leyden Elfin-King xxi, The cup..With *heath-ale mantling o'er. 1828Scott Rev. Ritson's Hist. Wks. (1849) 356 The genuine heath-ale of the Picts.
1858R. Hogg Veg. Kingd. 479 Ericaceæ, *Heath-blooms.
1819Rees Cycl. s.v. Sheep, *Heath-cropper, a small ill-shaped breed..of sheep..found abundantly..within the precincts of the forest of Windsor. 1863Kingsley Water Bab. ii. 62 You are a heath cropper bred and born. 1893H. J. Moule Old Dorset 109 They tramped, or rode their shaggy heath-croppers.
1804J. Grahame Sabbath (1839) 6/2 The *heath⁓fowl's plumes. 1823in Joanna Baillie's Collect. Poems 287 Conceal'd 'mong the mist, where the heath-fowl was crying.
1711Act 9 Anne c. 27 §3 *Heath-Game or Grouse. 1773Barrington in Phil. Trans. LXIII. 229 The claws of our common Grous, or Heath-game.
1447–8in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) I. 399 Ragge *hethstones and Flints to be purveid for the seid werkes. 1813G. Robertson Agric. Surv. Kincard. 3 (Jam.) There is a variety..known under the name of Heathens or heath-stone, and is I think what is otherwise called Gneiss. 1851Dict. Archit., Heath-stone, a name given by builders to a description of sandstone that occurs in irregular masses in the Bagshot sands.
1856in ‘Stonehenge’ Brit. Sports (1886) 510 The payment of *Heath Tax shall not be taken to confer on the person paying the same any legal rights which shall interfere..with the absolute control the Club now has over all persons using or going on to their grounds.
1676Lister in Ray's Corr. (1848) 125 *Heath-throstle..the Ring-ouzle is so called with us in Craven.
1804C. Smith Conversations II. 54 Bashful..The *heath-thrush makes his domicile.
b. In names of trees and plants: applied to any species which grows on heaths, as heath bedstraw, heath hair-grass, heath mouse-ear, heath rush; † heath-bramble, the Dewberry, Rubus cæsius; heath-corn (U.S.), Buckwheat, Polygonum Fagopyrum; heath-cup, an erect herb, Artanema fimbriatum (N.O. Scrophulariaceæ), native of the East Indies and Australia, cultivated for its large blue flowers; heath-cypress, a Club-moss, Lycopodium alpinum; heath-fern, the Sweet Mountain Fern, Lastrea Oreopteris; heath-grass, Triodia decumbens; heath-honeysuckle, Australian name for a flowering shrub, Banksia serrata; † heath-rose, the Rose of Jericho, Anastatica Hierochuntina.
1578Lyte Dodoens vi. iv. 661 The lesser berie is called..in Englishe, a heare Bremble, or *heath Bramble..The fruite is called a Dewberie, or blackberie.
1551Turner Herbal i. I iv a, Chamaecyparissus..may be called in English *hethe cypres because it groweth amonge hethe, or dwarf cypres. 1777Robson British Flora 264 Lycopodium alpinum..Cypress Wolfsclaw, Heath Cypress.
1863Kingsley Water Bab. ii. (1889) 50 Heaps of fallen limestone..with holes between them full of sweet *heath-fern.
1578Lyte Dodoens i. lx. 87 The small [Pilosella]..may be called in English..*Heath mouse-eare.
1597Gerarde Herbal (1633) 1387 The Rose of Jerico..in English, the *Heath Rose.
c. In names of butterflies and moths: see quots. and cf. sense 3.
1832J. Rennie Butterflies & Moths 137 The Heath Rivulet (E[mmelesia] ericetata..) appears in June. 1871E. Newman Brit. Butterflies (1874) 46 The Heath Fritillary..is fond of basking on thistles. 1883Cassell's Nat. Hist. VI. 67 The Heath Moths, or Fidonidæ, fly by day.
Hence heath v. trans., to cover with heath.
1862Macm. Mag. Sept. 426 How was it lichened and mossed, ferned and heathed..and brought to such a show of verdure and softness? |