| 释义 |
heather|ˈhɛðə(r)|
Forms: 4, 6 hathir, 5 had(d)yr, 6 haddir, hedder, 6–7 hadder, 6–8 hather, 8 hether, 8– heather.
[Of uncertain origin: commonly viewed as related to heath; but the form heather appears first in 18th c., and the earlier hadder seems on several grounds to discountenance such a derivation. The word appears to have been originally confined to Scotland (with the contiguous part of the English Border); the northern Engl. equivalent, as in Yorkshire, etc., being ling, from Norse. The word heath, on the other hand, seems to be native only in Southern and Midland counties, and never to have been applied to the Yorkshire or Scottish ‘moors’; it is only in comparatively recent times that the southern English heath and the Sc. hadder, hedder, have been associated, and the spelling heather thence introduced. On the analogy of adder, bladder, ladder, now in Sc. èther, blèther, lèther, and of Eng. feather, together, weather, we should expect heather to go back through hedder, hadder, to a type hædder or hæddre.]
1. a. The Scotch name, now in general use, for the native species of the Linnæan genus Erica, called in the north of England, ling; especially E. (now Calluna) vulgaris, common heather, and E. cinerea, fine-leaved heath or lesser bell-heather.
Some recent botanical writers have essayed to limit the originally local names heath, ling, heather, to different species; but each of these names is, in its own locality, applied to all the species there found, and pre-eminently to that locally most abundant. On the Yorkshire and Scottish moors, the most abundant is E. vulgaris, which is therefore the ‘common ling’ of the one, the ‘common heather’ of the other. But in other localities, esp. in the south-west, E. cinerea is the prevalent species, and is there the ‘common heath’. Scottish distinctions are dog-heather, he-heather (E. vulgaris), carlin h., she-heather (E. cinerea).
1335Compotus Procuratoris de Norham (Durham Treasury MS.), In strauue et hathir emptis pro coopertura domus molendini. c1470Henry Wallace v. 300 In heich haddyr Wallace and thai can twyn. Ibid. xi. 898 Hadyr and hay bond apon flakys fast. 1500–20Dunbar Poems lxvi. 86 Greit abbais grayth I nill to gather, Bot ane kirk scant coverit with hadder. 1548Hather [see heath 2 b]. 1572Satir. Poems Reform. xxxii. 19 With Peittis, with Turuis, and mony turse of Hedder. 1578Lyte Dodoens vi. xvi. 678 Heath, Hather, and Lyng is called in high and base Almaigne, Heyden. 1607Norden Surv. Dial. (N.), Heath is the generall or common name, whereof there is one kind, called hather, the other ling. 1621Burton Anat. Mel. iii. ii. vi. i. (1651) 546 Those Indian Brachmanni..lay upon the ground covered with skins, as the Redshanks do on Hadder. 1633Hart Diet Diseased i. xxvii. 126 In the Northerne..places of this Island..They dry their malt with ling, or heath, called there hadder. 1674–91Ray N.C. Words 135 Hadder, Heath or Ling. 1725Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Plague, They are to give them Hather or Hadder to eat. c1730Burt Lett. N. Scotl. xiii. (1754) I. 297 The Surface of the Ground is all over Heath, or, as they call it, Heather. 1866Treas. Bot. 199/1 Calluna. The true ‘Heather’ of Scotland, called also Ling and Common Heath. 1873Black Pr. Thule 3 Set amid the browns and greens of the heather.
b. Phr. to set the heather on fire: to make a disturbance. to take to the heather: to become an outlaw or bandit.
1818Scott Rob Roy xxxv, It's partly that whilk has set the heather on fire. 1896Westm. Gaz. 28 July 1/3 A woman..informed against the murderer, who at once ‘took to the heather’.
2. Applied with distinctive additions to other plants.
Himalayan heather, Andromeda fastigiata (Miller, 1884); monox heather, the Crowberry; silver or sponge heather, the moss Polytrichum commune. (Britten & Holl. Plant-n.)
3. attrib. and Comb.
a. Of, pertaining to, consisting of, or made from heather, as heather-ale, heather-bed, heather-beer, heather-besom, heather-bloom, heather-blossom, heather-brae, heather-brake, heather-bush, heather-cow (cow n.2), heather-honey, heather-knoll, heather-land, heather-roof, heather-top, heather-tuft, heather-wine.
b. Of the colour or appearance of heather: applied to fabrics, etc., of a mixed or speckled hue thought to resemble that of heather, as heather-mixture, heather-stockings, heather-suit, heather-tweed, heather-wool.
c. heather-clad, heather-covered, heather-mixed, heather-sweet adjs.d. heather-cat, a cat living wild and roaming among the heather; hence fig. applied to a person; heather-grass = heath-grass, Triodia decumbens; heather-owl, the Short-eared Owl, Asio accipitrinus.
1820Scott Monast. xxv, Halbert Glendinning..expressed himself unwilling to take any liquor stronger than the *heather ale, which was at that time frequently used at meals.
1724Ramsay Gentl. Sheph. ii. i, And skulk in hidings on the *heather braes.
1855Kingsley Heroes, Theseus i. 196 Beneath whose shade grew..purple *heather-bushes.
1886Stevenson Kidnapped xvi. 153 He's here and awa; here to-day and gone to morrow; a fair *heather-cat. 1895Crockett Men of Moss Hags xvi, That daft heather-cat of a cousin of mine.
1886G. Allen Maimie's Sake ii. 12 To climb the *heather-clad hill.
1818Scott Br. Lamm. xxix, What good can the poor bird do..except pine and die in the first *heather-cow or whin-bush she can crawl into?
1826Blackw. Edin. Mag. XX. 412/1 *Heather-honey of this blessed year's produce. 1863Kingsley Water Bab. (1879) 146 He..smelt..the wafts of heather honey off the grouse moor. 1935Jrnl. Physical Chem. XXXIX. 213 The term ‘heather honey’ is used to describe any honey derived largely from the nectar of Calluna vulgaris, Erica cinerea, and allied species. 1971Country Life 28 Oct. 1107/2 The drawback to heather honey is that it is difficult to extract. 1971Harrod's Xmas Catal. 59/3 ‘Double Scotch’ Honey is a unique blend of Scottish heather honey and rare old malt whisky.
1863J. G. Baker N. Yorksh. 181 A considerable extent of the surface yet remains as *heatherland.
1885Mabel Collins Prettiest Woman xxvi, He changed his ‘*heather-mixture’ for clothes more suitable to Piccadilly.
1819Rees Cycl. s.v., *Heather-roofs are frequently met with in the district of Cowal.
1876Mrs. Alexander Her Dearest Foe I. 278 Tom entered, in a bright purple-tinted ‘*heather suit’.
1824Scott St. Ronan's ii, A head like a *heather-tap.
▸ N. Amer. A textile speckled or flecked with multiple colours or shades (cf. Compounds 2). Freq. with modifying word indicating the predominant colour, as charcoal heather, grey heather, etc.
1913Manitoba Free Press 15 Feb. 5/3 (advt.) Men's socks, in grey heather and Lovat shades. 1966Northwest Arkansas Times 4 Aug. 28/1 (advt.) Now in stock in over 30 beautiful new fall colors including many Heathers. 2002W. M. Ellis Refl. on Acad. Life N. Dakota ii. 19 She wore a chalk pink blazer..and charcoal heather slacks. |