aspidistran.
/aspɪˈdɪstrə/ 1. A plant of the genus so called, belonging to the family Liliaceæ and native to China and Japan; frequently grown as a pot-plant, and often regarded as a symbol of dull middle-class respectability.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular cultivated or ornamental plants > foliage, house, or garden plants > [noun] > aspidistra
aspidistra1822
shield-flower1884
1822 Bot. Register 628 Aspidistra lurida. Dingy-flowered Aspidistra.
1852 G. W. Johnson Cottage Gardeners' Dict. (at cited word) The mushroom-shaped stigma by which Aspidistræ are characterised.
1920 ‘O. Douglas’ Penny Plain iii An aspidistra in a pot completed the table decorations.
1925 W. Deeping Sorrell & Son iv. i. 34 Carrying out the aspidistras and washing them in the yard.
1936 ‘G. Orwell’ (title) Keep the aspidistra flying.
Derivatives
aspiˈdistral adj. of or pertaining to an aspidistra; abounding in aspidistras. Also transferred.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular cultivated or ornamental plants > foliage, house, or garden plants > [adjective]
aspidistral1936
society > society and the community > social class > the common people > specific classes of common people > [adjective] > middle-class or bourgeois > symbol of
aspidistral1936
1936 ‘G. Orwell’ Keep Aspidistra Flying iii. 73 He was a made man—or, by Smilesian, aspidistral standards, un~made.
1936 ‘G. Orwell’ Keep Aspidistra Flying viii. 198 Why chew leathery beef in the aspidistral dining-room when he had ten quid in pocket?
1936 ‘G. Orwell’ Keep Aspidistra Flying x. 270 Flaxman's wife had forgiven him, and he was back at Peckham, in aspidistral bliss.
1939 R. Campbell Flowering Rifle i. 13 The weed of Life that grows where air is hot With ‘Meetings’ for its aspidistral pot.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1933; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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