| 释义 |
▪ I. hemlock, n.|ˈhɛmlɒk|
Forms: α. 1 hymlice, hymlic, hemlic, 3 hemeluc, 5 hem(e)lok, 6 hemlake, 6–7 hemlocke, 7 hemloc, hemblock, 6– hemlock. β. 5 humlok(e, humblok, homeluk, -lok, 6 humlocke, homlo(k)ke, -lock(e, 5–9 (dial.) humlock.
[OE. hymlice weak fem., hymlic, hemlic, str. masc.; of obscure origin: no cognate word is found in the other langs.
The form hym- is app. the original, that in hem- being Kentish. The later hum-, hom-, probably come from hym-; the ordinary form in mod.Sc. is humlo'.]
1. a. The common name of Conium maculatum, a poisonous umbelliferous plant, having a stout branched stem with purplish spots, finely divided leaves, and small white flowers; it is used medicinally as a powerful sedative. b. Also in rural use applied to the large Umbelliferæ generally: in south of Scotland esp. to Angelica sylvestris, and to Heracleum Sphondylium, ‘Hairy Humlo’.
It is not clear how far back these uses go. The OE. hymlice was a medicinal plant (prob. Conium); but the ME. the plant is chiefly referred to as a weed; the definite references to it as poisonous appear to begin with the 16th c. herbalists.
a700Epinal Gloss. 185 Cicuta, hymblicæ [a 800 Erfurt Huymblicæ]. c725Corpus Gloss. 463 Cicuta, hymlice. c1000ælfric Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 136/1 Cicuta, hemlic. c1000Sax. Leechd. II. 18 Do to hymlican and eofor þrotan. Ibid. II. 74 Nim weax & hemlic, ᵹetrifula. Ibid. III. 50 Wyll in buteran nyoðerweardne hymlic. c1265Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 558/3 Herba benedicta, i. herbe beneit, i. hemeluc. c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) xiv. 65 It es gude to sawe in humbloks and nettles and swilk oþer wedes. 14..Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 571/34 Cecuta, hemlok. c1425Voc. ibid. 645/21 Hic tipus, homelok. c1450Alphita 40/1 Cicuta..angl. hemelok uel hornwistel. 1483Cath. Angl. 191/2 An Humlok, cicuta, harba benedicta, intubus. a1500Songs & Carols (1847) 10 (Mätz.) Whan brome wyll appelles bere, And humloke hony in feere, Than sek rest in lond. 1549Coverdale, etc. Erasm. Par. Jas. iii. (R.), What is it elles than the poison of humlocke myxed with wyne? 1551Turner Herbal i. K iv, In sum places men vse to eate the yong stalkes of homlokkes in sallattes. 1573Tusser Husb. xxxiii. (1878) 74 Thy garden twifallow, Stroy hemlock and mallow. 1578Lyte Dodoens iii. xxiv. 452 Hemlocke is very euyl, dangerous, hurtful, and venemous. 1597Gerarde Herbal 904 (Britten & H.) The leaues shoote foorth of the ioints and branches like unto wilde Homlocks. 1599Shakes. Hen. V, v. ii. 44 Her fallow Leas, The Darnell, Hemlock, and ranke Femetary, Doth root vpon. 1605― Macb. iv. i. 25 Roote of Hemlocke, digg'd i' th' darke. 1635Swan Spec. M. vi. §4 (1643) 266 Hemlock..is meat to storks, and poyson to men. 1699Garth Dispens. ii. (1700) 14 Baneful Hemlock, and cold Aconite. 1758J. G. Cooper Apol. Aristippus (R.), Deadly hemlock's pois'nous weed. c1800Yng. Tamlane lv. in Scott Minstr. Scot. Bord., Their oaten pipes blew wondrous shrill, The hemlock small blew clear; And louder notes from hemlock large, And bog⁓reed, struck the ear.
c. With qualifying words, applied to various other umbelliferous plants with finely-divided leaves, as bastard hemlock, Anthriscus sylvestris (Syd. Soc. Lex.); lesser h., Fool's Parsley, æthusa Cynapium; mountain h., Levisticum officinale (Miller Plant-n.); water h., various species of Cicuta and Œnanthe.
1764Croker, etc. Dict. Arts & Sc., Cicuta-Aquatica, long-leaved water hemlock, a poisonous plant..growing in many meadows and watery places. 1788J. Lee Introd. Bot. (ed. 4) 273 Cicuta, Water Hemlock. 1794Martyn Rousseau's Bot. xvii. 231 The waters afford other poisonous herbs as Water Hemlock. 1796Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) II. 305 Fool's Parsley, or Ciceley, Lesser Hemlock.
2. a. A North American tree, Abies canadensis, more fully hemlock fir, h. spruce, ‘so called from the resemblance of its branches in tenuity and position to the leaves of the common hemlock’.
1776C. Carroll Jrnl. Miss. Canada in B. Mayer Mem. (1845) 49 Several rocky islands appear in the lake [George, N.Y.], covered with a species of cedar here called hemlock. 1830Lyell Princ. Geol. xiv. (1847) 197 Forests of spruce⁓fir and hemlock, a kind of fir somewhat resembling our yew in foliage. 1841–4Emerson Ess., Nature Wks. (Bohn) I. 224 The stems of pines, hemlocks, and oaks, almost gleam like iron on the excited eye. 1847Longfellow Ev. Prel. 1 The murmuring pines and the hemlocks, Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight. 1856Bryant Poems, Catterskill Falls iv, The long dark boughs of the hemlock fir. 1892Garden 27 Aug. 200 One came upon finely-developed specimens of the Hemlock Spruce..the Indian Cedar..and such-like ornamental trees. 1927M. de la Roche Jalna xviii. 213 She stood..looking at the sombre shapes of the hemlocks. 1932Atlantic Monthly Mar. 331/2 We come to that hidden glade, under the beeches, under the hemlocks.
b. ground hemlock: a Canadian species or variety of Yew (Treas. Bot. 1866).
3. A poisonous potion obtained from the common hemlock. (Believed to have been the poison by which Socrates was put to death.)
1601Holland Pliny II. 235 The..law of the Athenians, wherby malefactors..were forced to drink that odious potion of Hemlock. 1626Bacon Sylva §643 The Death that is most without Paine, hath beene noted to be, vpon the Taking of the Potion of Hemlock. 1820Keats Ode to Nightingale 2 A drowsy numbness pains My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk. 1874Blackie Self-Cult. 21 Plato was twenty-nine years old when Socrates drank the hemlock.
4. attrib. and Comb., as hemlock draught, hemlock-drinker; hemlock-like adj.; (sense 2) hemlock forest, hemlock lumber, etc.; also hemlock chervil, Torilis Anthriscus; hemlock dropwort: see dropwort 2; hemlock parsley, a North American umbelliferous plant resembling hemlock, but not poisonous; there are two species Conioselinum Canadense and C. Fischeri; hemlock pitch, the resinous exudation of the Hemlock spruce; hemlock stork's-bill, Erodium cicutarium; hemlock tree = sense 2.
1761Watson in Phil. Trans. LII. 91 This plant is called, by..Mr. Ray, Small *hemlock-chervil with rough seeds.
1849Ruskin Sev. Lamps v. §3. 138 Architecture..being especially dependent..on the warmth of the true life, is also peculiarly sensible of the *hemlock cold of the false.
1597–8Bp. Hall Sat. iv. (1824) 38 Socrates his poison'd *hemlock draught.
1824Byron Def. Transf. i. i. 228 Be air, thou *hemlock-drinker!
1856Olmsted Slave States 155 An agreeable resinous odor, resembling that of a *hemlock forest.
1862Chambers' Encycl. V. 306 A..liquid, having..a penetrating *hemlock-like odour.
Ibid., Two priests ate *hemlock-root by mistake; they became raving mad.
1813Hogg Witch of Fife vii, Mine [steed] was made of ane *humloke schaw, An a stout stallion was he.
1861Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. II. 45 Erodium cicutarium (*Hemlock Stork's-bill).
▪ II. hemlock, v.|ˈhɛmlɒk|
[f. the n.]
trans. To poison with hemlock. Hence ˈhemlocked ppl. a.
1846Thackeray Cornhill to Cairo v. 66 Of the race of Englishmen who come wondering about the tomb of Socrates, do you think the majority would not have voted to hemlock him? 1908L. Abercrombie Interludes & Poems 18 The slave Fate who serves Gods..fetched Skill'd poison,..and with this stew Hemlock'd the wine of Heaven. 1934Dylan Thomas Let. 11 May (1966) 129 A twisted veil of evil..coils up from the pit to the top of the hemlocked world. |