scillan.
/ˈsɪlə/, U.S. /ˈsɪlə/ 1. The pear-shaped bulb of the sea onion, Drimia maritima (formerly Scilla maritima) or of any of various other plants included or formerly included in the genus Scilla (see sense 2). Also: a preparation made from this, formerly (and sometimes still) used medicinally as a purgative and expectorant. Cf. squill n. 1. Now rare.
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1548 W. Turner Names of Herbes sig. G.i Scilla is hote in the seconde degree.
1640 J. Parkinson Theatrum Botanicum 964 Take..halfe a dramme of Pineapple kernells, these being made into an Electuary with honey, wherein the dried scales of Scylla have beene boyled.
1772 W. Cullen Lect. Materia Medica 456 The next three, Iris Florentina, Nicotiana, and Scilla, are all emetic and purgative.
1805 E. G. Clarke Mod. Pract. Physic ii. iii. v. 299 The scilla is, by far, the most valuable expectorant of any in the whole material medica.
1884 P. James Therapeutics Respiratory Passages xviii. 226 It was also early recognized that scilla is very irritant, full doses causing nausea, vomiting, and perhaps purging.
1906 Monthly Homœopathic Rev. 2 July 421 From the symptoms of the disease, perhaps one of the more indicated remedies is scilla, a drug which produces increase of urine.
2. Any of numerous plants included or formerly included in the genus Scilla (family Asparagaceae), comprising bulbous perennials native to Eurasia and temperate Africa, typically with a basal rosette of simple, strap-like leaves and producing blue, pink, or white star- or bell-shaped flowers in the spring; esp. (in early use) the sea onion, Drimia maritima (see sense 1), and (in later use) any of the many varieties and hybrids cultivated for ornament in gardens, now esp. of S. siberica and S. bifolia. Also (chiefly in form Scilla): the genus itself. Cf. squill n. 2.Valid publication of the genus name: Linnaeus Species plantarum (1753) I. 308.
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the world > plants > particular plants > plants and herbs > according to family > Liliaceae family or plants > [noun] > squill or sea-onion
onion?a1425
squillc1440
sea onion1526
squilla1526
French onion1548
scilla1629
vernal squill1796
1629 J. Parkinson Paradisi in Sole 133 I thinke it not amisse, to finish this of the Iacinths with the description of a Sea Iacinth, which (as you see) I take to be the Scilla, or Sea Onion, all his parts so nearely resembling a Iacinth, that I know not where to ranke him better then in this place.
1657 R. Tomlinson tr. J. de Renou Medicinal Materials i, in Medicinal Dispensatory sig. Rr4 That Scilla is cæpacious, and delights in hot, sandy, and maritimous places, and growes spontaneously, is unknown to few, for it is of late called the Sea Onjon.
1766 Philos. Trans. 1765 (Royal Soc.) 55 267 The same corpuscles were seen in the pollen of Atropa, Hyoscyamus, Scilla, Scabiosa..and a great number of other genera.
1824 J. C. Loudon Encycl. Gardening (ed. 2) §6502 Some species of scilla, muscari, iris, allium, oxalis.
1876 Garden 8 Apr. 338/2 The two-leaved Squill is a welcome addition to the list of purple flowers, and there are other species of Scilla which might be enumerated, but that they are not commonly grown.
a1930 D. H. Lawrence Last Poems (1932) 41 In the shadow of the sun the snow is blue..with a hint of the frozen bells of the scylla flower.
1931 A. M. Lindbergh Let. 10 Mar. in Hour of Gold (1973) 154 George had planted scillas—the little bright blue flower—all over his grave.
1991 Gardener Jan. 10/1 You can underplant it with daffodils and other bulbs like scillas or snake's head fritillaries.
2005 Gardenlife Oct. 29 I like to see ribbons of early daffs, scilla or chionodoxa winding their way through borders early in the season.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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