flaxseedn.
1.
a. The seed of flax, linseed.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > yielding fibre, thatching, or basket material > [noun] > flax plants > seed or seed-vessel
linseedc1000
hoppec1325
flax-hoppe14..
linget1477
line-boll1483
line1540
flaxseed1562
1562 Act 5 Eliz. c. 5. §29 One Rood..is limited to be sown with Linseed otherwise Flaxseed or Hempseed.
?16.. L. Delaware in F. J. Child Eng. & Sc. Pop. Ballads (1892) IV. viii. 314 I'll hie me To Lincolnshire, To sow hemp-seed and flax-seed.
1737 G. Berkeley Let. in Wks. (1871) IV. 248 It is hoped your flax-seed will come in time.
1858 P. L. Simmonds Dict. Trade Products Flax-seed, the boll of flax, generally termed linseed.
b. The plant Radiola Millegrana, the seed-pods of which are similar to those of the flax plant; cf. allseed n. b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > yielding fibre, thatching, or basket material > [noun] > flax plants > plant resembling
flaxseed1848
1848 C. A. Johns Week at Lizard 290 Radiola Millegrana, Flax-seed, grows in similar situations.
2. U.S. A name given to the pupa of the Hessian fly from its resemblance to a flax-seed.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > order Diptera or flies > [noun] > suborder Nematocera > family Cecidomyiidae > member of (wheat midge) > larva
flaxseed1865
red maggot1886
1865 Trans. Illinois State Agric. Soc. 1861–4 5 485 A wheat stubble, full of Hessian flies in the ‘flax seed’ or pupa state.
1886 Times 18 Aug. 10/6 Pupæ..resembling small and rather elongated flax seeds. On this account they are called ‘flax seeds’ in America.
1888 Riverside Nat. Hist. II. 410 The larvæ [of the Hessian fly] assume the pupa state, called the flaxseed stage.
Compounds
attributive and in other combinations (sense 1), as flaxseed mill, flax-seed oil, flaxseed tea.
ΚΠ
1829 J. Togno & E. Durand tr. H. Milne-Edwards & P. Vavasseur Man. Materia Medica iv. 86 Flaxseed [misprinted flaxsed; 1831 flaxseed] oil.
1874 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. I. 881/2 Flax-seed Mill, one for grinding flax-seed for the more ready abstraction of the oil.
1904 E. Glasgow Deliverance 101 Polly makes her hot flaxseed tea every two hours.
1922 J. Joyce Ulysses ii. vi. [Hades] 87 Only measles. Flaxseed tea. Scarlatina, influenza epidemics.
flaxseed ore n. = dyestone ore: see dye-stone n. at dye n. Compounds 2.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1896; most recently modified version published online March 2021).
<
n.1562