| 释义 |
devil's-bit Herb.
[A transl. of med.L. morsus diaboli, devil's bite, in Ger. Teufels-abbisz.]
1. A species of Scabious (Scabiosa succisa), a common meadow plant with blue flowers, having a thickish premorse root; also devil's-bit scabious.
c1450Alphita (Anecd. Oxon) 121 Morsus diaboli..ang. deue[le]sbite. 1568Turner Herbal iii. 43 The devils bite is called in common Latine Morsus diaboli & succisa. 1578Lyte Dodoens i. lxxiv. 110 Deuels bit groweth in dry medowes. 1616Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 203 Diuels-bit (so called, because it sheweth as though the middle, or the heart of the root, were gnawed or bitten by some Diuell..as though the Diuell did enuie the good which it bringeth vnto men by the incredible vertues that are therein). 1672–3Grew Anat. Roots i. i. (1682) 61 That Plant superstitiously called Devils-bit: because the end of it [i.e. the Root] seems to be bitten off. 1747Wesley Prim. Physic (1762) 78 Half a Pint of strong Decoction of Devil's bit. 1854S. Thomson Wild Fl. iii. (ed. 4) 247 The root which seems to be ‘bitten’ off is the natural appearance..and..has given rise to the appellation ‘devil's bit scabious’.
2. yellow devil's-bit, a composite plant, Apargia autumnalis, also called autumnal hawk-bit, frequent in meadows in autumn.
1758Pultney in Phil. Trans. L. 514 Hawkweed with bitten roots, or Yellow Devil's-bit. 1779Lightfoot Fl. Scot. (1789) I. 433.
3. Transferred in U.S. to several American plants, having roots of similar shape, as Chamælirium luteum, the Blazing Star, family Liliaceæ; Liatris spicata, the Button Snakeroot, family Compositæ. swamp d., Ptelea trifoliata, a shrub or small tree, so called from its bitterness. |