| 释义 |
machair Sc.|ˈmaxər|
Also machaire, machar, machir, machirr.
[Gael. machair, Ir. machaire.]
A flat or low-lying coastal strip of arable or grassland usually overlying shell sand. Also attrib.
1684A. Symson in A. Mitchell Geogr. Coll. relating to Scotl. (1907) II. 86 These three parishes last described..are commonly called the Machirrs or Machirrs of Whithern, which word Machirrs, as I am informed, imports white ground, and indeed those parishes, contain by far much more arable and white land, than up in the Moors, though the parishes there be much larger. 1878Q. Jrnl. Geol. Soc. XXXIV. 848 Benbecula..has only one hill; and if we except the ‘Machair’, as the ‘good land’ along the west coast is called, all the rest of the island consists of low-lying moor, bog, and lake, with long shallow inlets of the sea straggling in. Ibid. 849 Adjoining the sandy shores are the delightful ‘machairs’, with their wealth of bright colour; while inland from the ‘machairs’ stretch the brown sombre peat and moorland. 1899Blackw. Mag. Feb. 423/2 The burial-ground..occupied a little knoll in the middle of the ‘machar’, close to the sea (machar is the fine sweet pasture or links lying along the shore). 1924Glasgow Herald 15 Mar. 4 In Highland glens or by the machirs of the Western Isles a crone..will still be consulted as if she were the Delphic sibyl. 1930J. Buchan Castle Gay xvii. 271 The machars, yellowing with autumn, stretched for miles before him. 1955F. F. Darling West Highland Survey 21 There is a sufficiency of shell among the sand to encourage a fairly typical machair flora. Ibid. 51 The introduction of rabbits in the nineteenth century has gone a long way towards ruining the agricultural potential of the island, as these animals have created several small deserts on the machair. 1958Irish Times 7 June, The term ‘machaire’ is used by English-speakers here to denote ‘coastal strips of pasture land’. 1971Country Life 24 June 1606/1 Her parents complained of attempts to put holiday caravans and a public lavatory on the machair. 1973Stornoway Gaz. 3 Mar. 6/2 We are appealing to any reader (rugby enthusiast or not) who might be able to suggest (or lend) any reasonably flat area of ground—a stretch of machair or croftland—within, say, five miles of Stornoway. |