dead man's thumbn.
1. A local name for Orchis mascula, from the shape of the tubers. (Cf. dead man's finger(s n.)
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the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular cultivated or ornamental plants > particular flower or plant esteemed for flower > [noun] > orchids > early purple orchids
standengussa1400
standelworta1500
gandergoose?1550
adder's grass1551
ragwort1552
cuckoo orchis1578
fool's ballocks1578
Palma Christi1578
standergrass1578
fool's stones1597
fox-stones1597
goat's stones1597
goat stones1597
testicles1597
dead man's finger1604
long purples1604
dead man's thumb1652
man orchis1670
monkey orchisa1678
meadow orchis1753
military orchis1784
male orchis1785
ram's horn1832
lady orchis1846
dead man's hand1853
scorpion plant1866
phalaenopsid1880
walking orchid1910
soldier orchid1934
1652 Roxburghe Ballads (Britten & Holland) Each flower..Such as within the meddowes grew, As dead man's thumbs and harebell blew [v.r. an hearb all blew].
1853 G. Johnston Terra Lindisfarnensis I. 193 From the colour and shape of the tuber the plant is called Dead-man's thumb; and children tell one another, with mysterious awe, that the root was once the thumb of some unburied murderer.
2. = dead man's hand n. 1.
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the world > animals > invertebrates > subkingdom Metazoa > grade Diploblastica > phylum Coelenterata > [noun] > class Anthozoa Actinozoa > order Alcyonaria > genus Alcyonium > member of
sea-foam1725
dead man's hand1755
dead man's toes1755
mermaid's glove1793
alcyonian1844
alcyonoid1857
dead man's finger1860
alcyonarian1861
dead man's thumb1863
sea-finger1876
1863 G. Rowe in Intellectual Observer Sept. 84 The swelling lobes of the dead man's thumb.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1894; most recently modified version published online March 2018).
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n.1652