harvest queenn.
A name given
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a. to Ceres, the goddess of agriculture and crops.
b. to a young woman chosen from the reapers (or an image or doll dressed up, cf. harvest doll n.), to whom was given a post of honour at the harvest-home.
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society > leisure > social event > festive occasion > persons and characters > [noun] > presiding > at harvest-home
harvest queen1579
1579 E. Spenser Shepheardes Cal. Aug. 36 Well mought it beseme any haruest Queene.
1598 Bp. J. Hall Virgidemiarum: 3 Last Bks. v. ii. 65 He stole the daughter of the haruest Queene.
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost ix. 842 Adam..had wove Of choicest Flours a Garland to adorne Her Tresses, and her rural labours crown As Reapers oft are wont thir Harvest Queen . View more context for this quotation
1778 W. Hutchinson Anc. Customs 17 in View Northumberland II In some places I have seen an image apparelled in great finery, crowned with flowers..This they call the Harvest Queen, and respresents the Roman Ceres.
1826 W. Hone Every-day Bk. (1827) II. 1161.
c. = harvest-lady n. at harvest n. Compounds 2. local.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > cultivation or tillage > cultivation of plants or crops > harvesting > [noun] > cutting, reaping, or mowing > reaper or mower > leading reapers
lord of the harvest1534
harvest-lord1573
lord1743
stubble-rig?1780
harvest-ladya1825
harvest queena1825
a1825 R. Forby Vocab. E. Anglia (1830) (at cited word) Harvest Lady, The Dictt. call this personage the Harvest-Queen; Dr. D. E. Clark says that, on inquiry in Cambridgeshire, he understood that to be the denomination. He would not have received such information in Norfolk.
1847–78 J. O. Halliwell Dict. Archaic & Provinc. Words at Harvest-lady The second reaper is also called the harvest-queen.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1898; most recently modified version published online September 2018).
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