| 释义 |
▪ I. milt, n.|mɪlt|
Forms: 1 multi, milti, 1, 3–6 milte, 4–6 mylte, 5–6 mylt, 6 melte, 4, 6– (now dial.) melt, 6 milt.
[OE. milte str. masc., also wk. fem., spleen = OFris. milte fem., spleen, MDu. milte (Du. milt) fem., spleen, also milt of fish, OHG. milzi neut. (MHG. milze neut., mod.G. milz fem.), ON. milti neut., spleen (OSw. mjälte, mjälter, milter, mod.Sw. mjelte masc., Da. milt, spleen, Norw. mjelte masc., spleen, milt of fish):—OTeut. types *miltjo-, *miltjôn-, perh. f. the root of melt v., with reference to the supposed digestive function of the spleen. The sense ‘spawn of fish’ may have been adopted from Du.; as the milt of a fish is of soft substance like the spleen, the transferred use was not unnatural, but it was no doubt helped to gain currency by the resemblance in sound between milt and milk (Du. milch: see milk n.), the older name for the soft roe of fish. The sense also exists in Norwegian, where it is to be noted that mjelte milt is homophonous with mjelte a milking, connected with ON. mialta to milk.
The spelling multi in the Epinal Glossary cannot be explained with certainty, but it certainly cannot represent an ablaut-variant, of which there is no trace in any Teut. lang.]
I.
1. The spleen in mammals; also, an analogous organ in other vertebrate animals.
a700Epinal Gloss. 594 Lien, multi. c725Corpus Gloss. (Hessels) L. 172 Lien, milte. Ibid. S. 472 Splenis, milte. c1000Sax. Leechd. II. 242 Hu se milte bið emlang & gædertenᵹe þære wambe hæfð þynne filmene sio hæfð fætte & þicce ædra. c1250Death 171 in O.E. Misc. 178 Nu schal for-rotien..Þi mahe and þi milte þi liure and þi lunge. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. xli. (1495) 157 The substaunce of the mylte is blacke. c1489Caxton Sonnes of Aymon i. 52 His nayles stacke in to my lyuer and my mylte. 1533Elyot Cast. Helthe (1541) 22 The splene or mylte is of yl juice, for it is the chamber of melancholy. 1658Rowland tr. Moufet's Theat. Ins. 1110 In the milts of Sheep..innumerable worms are oft-times found. c1720W. Gibson Farrier's Guide i. ii. (1738) 12 The Spleen, or Milt is a soft, spungy Substance. 1764Museum Rust. II. li. 146 The melt or spleen was very small and thin. 1847W. C. L. Martin Ox 130 Inflammation of the spleen or melt.
b. attrib. and Comb., as milt-grown a., affected by an enlarged spleen; milt-like a., resembling the substance of the mammalian milt; milt-pain, a disease amongst swine; milt-sickness, a disease of the spleen amongst cattle; so milt-sick a.; † milt-vein (see quot.); milt-wort = miltwaste.
1731Gentl. Mag. I. 101 [The world] has an ugly hoskey cough, and is *milt-grown.
1822–34Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) I. 187 One [polypus] is termed *miltlike by Professor Munro.
1704Dict. Rust. et Urb., *Milt-pain is a Disease in Hogs, proceeding from greediness of eating Mast.
1882Times of Natal 8 June, He never knew of a case of illness from eating a *melt-sick ox.
Ibid., An ox suffering from *melt-sickness.
1597A. M. tr. Guillemeau's Fr. Chirurg. 29 b/2 In the left hande, shee [the Liver vayne] is called the *miltvayne.
1611Cotgr., Scolopendrie, Spleenwort, *Milt⁓wort, Finger-fearn. 1668Wilkins Real Char. Index, Miltwort [text p. 71 Miltwast].
2. transf. (See quot. 1599.)
1587L. Mascall Govt. Cattle (1596) 106 If a colt when he is fold do not cast his milt, husbandmen say he will not liue long,..some colt will cast two miltes, no horse that liues xii. yeares hath any milt within him. 1599A. M. tr. Gabelhouer's Bk. Physicke 23/1 In the first foalinge of a Mare, her Foale hath..on the tung a peece of fleshe which resembleth the Milt of an Oxe, and of some is also called a Milt. 1677Johnson in Ray's Corr. (1848) 128 Horsemen have not agreed what that is the foal is said to sneeze, which they call a milt.
II.
3. The roe or spawn of the male fish; the ‘soft roe’ of fishes.
1483Caxton Gold. Leg. 77 b/1 Open the fysshe and take to the herte the galle and the mylte. 1530Palsgr. 245/1 Mylte [of] a fysshe, la laicte; laicte de poisson. 1596Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. I. 19 Quhen now thay ar gutted, and the meltis takne out, thay [etc.]. 1611Cotgr., Laicte, the milt, or soft roe, of fishes. 1653Walton Angler viii. 162 You shall scarce or never take a Male Carp without a Melt, or a Female without a Roe or Spawn. 1718J. Chamberlayne Relig. Philos. (1730) II. xxii. §36 Some of the Females discharge their Spawn, and the males their Melt or Seed in the Water near each other. 1884Braithwaite Salmonidæ Westmld. i. 3 Milt is found in the males and ova in females.
b. attrib., as milt-like a., resembling the contents of the soft roe of a fish.
1808Edin. Rev. XI. 322 The milt-like fluid of the drones might be seen in the cells.
▪ II. milt, v.|mɪlt|
[f. prec.]
trans. ‘To impregnate the roe or spawn of the female fish’ (J.).
1694Motteux Rabelais v. xxxi. (1737) 143, I..saw..Fish..milting, spawning. 1884Field 6 Dec. 787/1 A female [char] gave 146 eggs, which were milted from a male of the same hybrid race. |