| 释义 |
▪ I. lightwood1|ˈlaɪtwʊd|
[f. light a.1]
A name given to various trees from the lightness of their wood; in Australia chiefly applied to Acacia Melanoxylon.
(The first quot. may belong to the next word: the writer perh. mistook the reasons for the appellation.)
1685L. Wafer Voy. & Descr. Isthmus Amer. (1699) 95 A Tree about the bigness of an Elm, the Wood of which is very light, and we therefore call it Light-wood. 1843J. Backhouse Visit. Austral. Col. iv. 48 Light-wood..derives this name from swimming in water, while the other woods of V.D. Land, except the pines, generally sink. 1859H. Kingsley G. Hamlyn II. 193 A solitary dark-foliaged lightwood. 1866H. Simcox Rustic Rambles 54 The numerous lightwood trees. 1866Treas. Bot. 681/1 Light⁓wood, Ceratopetalum apetalum.
▪ II. ˈlightwood2 N. Amer. & West Indian.
[f. light n. (or light v.2).]
a. Any wood used in lighting a fire; in the southern states, resinous pine-wood.
b. Used as a name for various trees (e.g. Amyris balsamifera candle-wood) which burn with a brilliant flame.
[1685: see prec.] 1693Phil. Trans. XVII. 620 The Lignum Rhodium Tree, called by the Planters of Barbados Lightwood. 1705R. Beverley Virginia iii. iii. §11 (1855) 136 They [Indians] generally burn pine or lightwood (that is, the fat knots of dead pine). 1763W. Robinson in W. Roberts Nat. Hist. Florida 99 Oak,..cabbage, lightwood, and mangrove trees. 1859Bartlett Dict. Amer., Light⁓wood, pine wood as opposed to slower burning wood. 1888Century Mag. XXIX. 880/2 The bright-blazing pitch-pine, called..‘lightwood’ at the South.
attrib.1856Olmsted Slave States 450 Carrying light⁓wood torches. 1859K. Cornwallis New World I. 176 The lightwood tree grew to a height of a hundred feet. |