| 释义 |
asphodel Bot.|ˈæsfəʊdɪl|
Also 6–7 asphodill.
[ad. L. asphodil-us, asphodel-us, a. Gr. ἀσϕόδελ-ος, of unkn. origin. The earlier form (ad. med.L. affodillus) was affodil, q.v., whence daffodil.]
1. A genus of liliaceous plants with very handsome flowers, mostly natives of the south of Europe. The White Asphodel or King's Spear covers large tracts of land in Apulia, where its leaves afford good nourishment to sheep. From the genus the order has sometimes been called Asphodeleæ.
[1578Lyte Dodoens 649 This herbe is called in Greke ἀσϕόδελος; in shops Affodilus..in English also Affodyl and Daffodyll.] 1597Gerard Herbal 85 To shew vnto you the sundry sorts of asphodils..Dioscorides maketh mention but of one asphodill: but Plinie setteth downe two. 1601Holland Pliny II. 128 Asphodel hath a property to chase away mice and rats. 1611Cotgr., Asphodile [Fr.], The Daffadill, Affodill, or Asphodill flower; also the root or bulbes thereof. 1712tr. Pomet's Hist. Drugs I. 39 The Root is like the Asphodel, and yields..Salt and Oil. 1859Rawlinson Herodotus iv. cxc. III. 169 Dwellings..made of the stems of the asphodel, and of rushes, wattled together. 1877H. E. H. King Discip., Ugo Bassi i. 51 The moonlight spires Of asphodel rose out of glossy tufts In straight white armies.
b. By the poets made an immortal flower, and said to cover the Elysian meads. (Cf. Homer Odyss. XI. 539 ἀσϕοδελὸς λειµών.)
1634Milton Comus 838 To embathe In nectared lavers strewed with asphodel. 1658Sir T. Browne Hydriot. 37 The dead are made to eat Asphodels about the Elysian meadows. 1713Pope St. Cecilia's Day 74 Happy souls who dwell In yellow meads of asphodel Or amaranthine bowers. a1842Tennyson Lotos-Eaters 170 Others in Elysian valleys dwell, Resting weary limbs at last on beds of asphodel. 1858Longfellow Poems 90 He who wore the crown of asphodels, Descending, at my door began to knock.
c. attrib. (sometimes = ‘Elysian.’)
1831Carlyle Sart. Res. i. xi, Is that a real Elysian brightness..Is it of a truth leading us into beatific Asphodel meadows? 1847Longfellow Ev. ii. iv. 149 Hereafter crown us with asphodel flowers. 1857Ruskin Pol. Econ. Art 37 In their race thro' the asphodel meadows of their youth.
2. With qualifications, popularly applied to several other plants:
a. Bog, English, or Lancashire Asphodel (Narthecium Ossifragum), common on moorlands in Britain.
†b. Bulbous Asphodel, a species of Ornithogalum or ‘Star of Bethlehem’ (O. pyrenaicum). Obs.
c. False Asphodel, in America, a species of Tofieldia.
d. Scotch Asphodel (Tofieldia palustris), a British subalpine plant.
1599Gerard Cat., Asphodelus Lancastriensis, Lancashire Asphodill. A. bulbosus, Bulbous Asphodill. 1834M. Howitt Flower-Less. in Sk. Nat. Hist. (1851) 195 The English asphodel: In the turfy bogs ye found it. 1863Baring Gould Iceland 190 In swampy spots clustered the white heads of the mountain asphodel. |