| 释义 |
▪ I. caltrop, caltrap|ˈkæltrɒp|
Forms: 1 (?) coltetræppe, calcatrippe, 3 calketrap, 3–5 calketrappe, 4 calketreppe, kalketrappe; 5 calletrappe, 5–6 caltrappe, 6 caltrope, -troppe, -throppe, calltrop, calteroope, 7 calthrap, (6 galtrope, -troppe, 7 galtrap, -trop, -throp(e, gall-trappe, -throp, 7–8 gall-trap); 7–9 calthrop, (5, 9 calthorp), 5– caltrap, 6– caltrop.
[ME. calke-, kalketrappe, occurring in senses 1 and 3; OE. coltetræppe (? colcetreppe), calcatrippe, sense 3; corresp. to OF. kauketrape, cauchetrepe (caudetrepe) Godefroy, in sense 3, later chauche-trape, chauces-trappes, chausse-trape Littré (senses 1, 2, 3), which point back to an orig. caulke-, caulce-trape, cf. obs. It. calcatrippa, sense 3; these forms indicate a L. type *calcatrap(p)a or *calcitrap(p)a (the latter is in mod. botanical L.), app. f. calc-em heel + trappa trap, gin, snare (a. OHG. trapo trap, gin, noose); but perhaps in calcatrappa there was an association with calcāre to trample, tread. All the earliest examples are in sense 3; but it seems much more likely that the name should have been first used literally, and then transferred to plants. The mod.Eng. and Fr. sense ‘star-thistle’ is clearly transferred from 2. As a plant-name the word appeared (from med.L.) already in late OE.; sense 2 was probably adopted from French. Galltrap, frequent in 16–17th c., is an evident popular etymology referring to the galling of horses' feet.]
†1. A trap, gin, or snare, to catch the feet of beasts, of horses or men in war, and the like. Obs. (Still in Fr. in sense ‘wolf-trap’.)
(Quots. c 1300 and 1393 lead on to sense 2.)
a1300Gloss. Neckam's Treat. in Wright Voc. 111 Pedicam sive descipulam, qua lupi capiantur, gloss. calketrap. c1300K. Alis. 6070 They haden..calketrappen maden ynowe, In weyes undur wode and bowe, Alisaundris men to aqwelle. 1340Ayenb. 131 Þise wordle þet ne is bote..a forest uol of þyeues an of calketreppen and of grines. 1393Langl. P. Pl. C. xxi. 296 With crokes and with Kalketrappes a⁓cloye we hem echone. c1440Promp. Parv. 59 Caltrap of yryn, fote hurtynge, hamus. 1850J. Leitch Müller's Anc. Art §391, note 9 Psyche maltreated by Eros, singed as a butterfly..caught in a caltrop.
2. a. Mil. An iron ball armed with four sharp prongs or spikes, placed like the angles of a tetrahedron, so that when thrown on the ground it has always one spike projecting upwards: Used to obstruct the advance of cavalry, etc.
1519W. Horman Vulg. 266 b, They hydde pretely vnder the grounde caltroppys of yron to steke in horse or mennys fete. 1577Holinshed Chron. II. 57/1 The Irishmen had strawed all alongest the shore a great number of caltrops of iron, with sharpe pricks standing vp, to wound the Danes in the feet. 1581Marbeck Bk. of Notes 164 They did cast from them their Caltropes, which pricked their horses in the feete so sore, that down came the Chariots, horsemen and all. 1611Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ix. xiv. (1632) 777 The murtherers to preuent pursuit, strewed galthrops behinde them. 1622F. Markham Bk. War iii. ix. 114 Foards are soon choakt up by Calthropes. a1626Fletcher Love's Pilgr. i. i, I think they ha' strewed the High-wayes with caltraps, No horse dare's pass 'em. 1659Hammond Paraphr. Matt. xi. 6 Sharp stakes or other instruments to wound or gall the passengers, which are known by the name of Gall-trappes. 1816Scott Antiq. iii, Ancient calthrops..dispersed by Bruce to lacerate the feet of the English chargers. 1858O. W. Holmes Aut. Breakf. T. (1883) 255 One of those small calthrops our grandfathers used to sow round in the grass when there were Indians about,—iron stars.
b. fig.
a1555Ridley Wks. 368 The devil's galtropes that he casteth in our ways by some of his busyheaded younkers. 1607Dekker Wh. Babylon Wks. 1873 II. 224 If euer I come backe Ile be a Calthrop To pricke my countries feet, that tread on me. 1876J. Weiss Wit, Hum. & Shaks. ii. 57 So he is a caltrop in men's path, with a spike always uppermost to impale the over-hasty feet.
†c. attrib., as in caltrop-thistle, caltrop-grass.
1597Gerard Herbal i. xiv. 18 Wee may call it in English, Round headed Caltrope Grasse. 1603Holland Plutarch's Mor. 59 With Calthrap-thistles rough and keen.
d. Her. A representation of a military caltrop in a coat of arms. (Now always spelt caltrap.)
1680G. Mackenzie Sci. Herauldry 95 The Earl of Pearth..hath for his Compartment, a Galtrap used in Warr. 1716S. Kent Gram. Heraldry s.v. Trap of Gloucestershire, The Field is Argent, three Cheval-Traps (or Caltrops) Sable. 1847Gloss. Heraldry 76 Cheval-trap, sometimes called Caltrap, or Galtrap, and (chiefly by French heralds) Chausse-trap: an instrument thrown upon the ground to injure the feet of horses, and consisting of four iron spikes, one of which is ever uppermost. 1969Franklyn & Tanner Encycl. Dict. Heraldry 340/1 Or, three caltraps gules. Bellwood.
3. Herb.
a. Now usually Caltrops: A name given to various plants that catch or entangle the feet, or suggest the instrument described in 2. Applied in OE. to brambles or buckthorn, and apparently to Eryngo or Sea-holly; by 16th c. herbalists to Star-thistle (Centaurea Calcitrapa) from its round head garnished with long radiant spines; also by translators to the spiny-seeded Tribulus terrestris (land caltrops) of Southern Europe.
b. water caltrops, a name for Potamogeton densus and P. crispus, which tend to entangle swimmers; also from its resemblance to the instrument (sense 2) for the seed of Trapa natans of Southern Europe.
c1000Ags. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 269 Ramnus, colte⁓træppe, þefanðorn. a1100Ibid. 298 Heraclea, calca⁓trippe. c1265Ibid. 557 Tribulus marinus, calketrappe, seaþistel. a1387Sinon. Barthol. in Anecd. Oxon. 37 Saliunca, wilde popi (marg. calketrappe). c1440Promp. Parv. 58 Caltrap, herbe, saliunca. 1578Lyte Dodoens iv. lix. 521 This herbe is now called in..English, Starre Thistel, or Caltrop. 1597Gerard Herbal ii. ccxcviii. 825 Most do call the fruit of this caltrops castaneæ aquatiles [= F. châtaigne d'eau, fruit of Trapa natans]. 1611Cotgr., s.v. Achantique..Calthrop, or Star-thistle. 1671Salmon Syn. Med. iii. xxii. 437 Tribulus τριβολος Caltrop, abates inflamations. 1727Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v., Land Caltrop..the Seeds are inclosed in a Fruit that is furnish'd with several Prickles, and resembles the Cross of Malta. 1855Singleton Virgil I. 80 Succeeds a prickly wood And burrs and caltrops. 1866Treas. Bot. s.v. Trapa, The very singular four-horned fruits of the European species of Trapa (T. natans)..have been compared to the spiked iron instruments called caltrops..growing in water, it is commonly called the Water Caltrops.
4. In the nomenclature of the spicular elements of sponges, a tetraxial spicule with four equal arms radiating from a central point, so called from its resemblance to a caltrop (sense 2).
1887Sollas in Encycl. Brit. XXII. 416/2 Tetraxon Quadriradiate Type (Calthrops). 1940L. H. Hyman Invertebrates I. vi. 337 The typical spicule of the simpler tetractinellids is the calthrops, or tetraxon with four approximately equal rays.
▪ II. † ˈcaltrop, v. Obs.—0
In 5 caltrappyn.
[f. the n.]
trans. To catch or trap with a caltrop.
c1440Promp. Parv. 59 Caltrappyn, hamo. |