| 释义 |
lettuce|ˈlɛtɪs|
Forms: 3–6 letus(e, 4–6 lettuse, 5 latewes, 5–6 letews, letuce, 6 let(t)yse, lettes(se, -is, -us, -uze, -yce, lectuse, lacteux, -use, laictuce, Sc. lattouce, 6–7 lactuce, lettise, 6–8 lettice, 7 lectuce, 8 lattice, 6– lettuce.
[ME. letuse, connected with OF. laituë (Cotgr. laictuë, mod.F. laitue):—lactūca, f. lact-, lac milk, the name having reference to the milky juice of the plant.
The exact origin of the Eng. word is uncertain. Prof. Skeat conjectures that it may be a. OF. *letuse, *laituse:—L. *lactūcea, an adjectival derivative of lactūca. Palsgrave in 1530 gives lectus as a Fr. form, and a vocabulary of c 1475 (Wright-Wülcker 787) gives letusa as the Latin equivalent of Eng. letuse; but the genuineness of these is doubtful.]
1. a. Any plant of the genus Lactuca; esp. Lactuca sativa or Garden Lettuce, the leaves of which are much used as a salad; often collect. in sing. for the plants or their leaves. wild lettuce: some plant of this genus growing wild; spec. in England = L. Scariola and L. virosa; in America = L. Canadensis. Also applied to various plants resembling this genus. For cabbage, cos, hare, Indian, lamb's lettuce etc., see the first member.
c1290S. Eng. Leg. I. 18/598 A fair herbe, þat men cleopez letuse. a1300Cursor M. 6079 Wit therf bred and letus wild. 1382Wyclif Exod. xii. 8 Therf looves with wylde letuse. c1400tr. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh. 73 Wylde letus þat feldmen clepin skarioles. c1420Pallad. on Husb. ii. 176 Letuce is to be sette in Ianyueer. c1483Caxton Dialogues iv. 13 Yet ben in the gardynes..Letews, porselane. 1533Elyot Cast. Helthe (1539) 39 Breade steped in white brothe, with sodden lettyse, or cykorie, are good to be vsed. 1562Turner Herbal ii. 26 Muche vse of lettes hurteth the eysight. 1566Painter Pal. Pleas. I. 39 When the yong lactuse begin to growe, I cutte of the bitter and sower stalkes from them. 1614J. Cooke Greene's Tu Quoque L 3 b, Did I eate any Lettice to supper last night, that I am so sleepie. 1633Johnson Gerarde's Herbal ii. xxxviii. 309 The greater wilde Lettuce smelling of Opium. 1651–3Jer. Taylor Serm. for Year (1678) 108 A dish of Lettice and a clear Fountain can cool all my Heat. 1671H. M. tr. Erasm. Colloq. 100 It is very fine Broth which he is served up in; the Lettice are very choyce ones. 1733Pope Hor. Sat. ii. i. 18 If your point be rest, [take] Lettuce and cowslip-wine. 1760J. Lee Introd. Bot. App. 317 Lettuce, Wild, Prenanthes. 1876Harley Mat. Med. (ed. 6) 540 Lettuce has glaucous vertical leaves.
b. slang (orig. U.S.). Money.
1929Amer. Speech June 357 If you wish to boast of having a great deal of money, you may speak of having..wads of it, or a wad of lettuce, meaning a big roll of bills. 1932J. Dos Passos 1919 57 He still had more'n fifty iron men, quite a roll of lettuce for a guy like him. 1967Wodehouse Company for Henry v. 84 How are you fixed for lettuce, Hank?.. Dough. Cash. Glue... Money. 1974J. Wainwright Cause for Killing 216 ‘They spend money, in Beirut...’ ‘Phoenicia Street,’ murmured Gantley. ‘Anything... Any out-of-this-world luxury. Any service. Anything! You have the lettuce... Phoenicia Street can oblige.’
c. = lettuce green.
1963New Yorker 1 June 115 These shirts..in..cedar, lettuce, navy or red.
†2. Proverb. like lips, like lettuce = ‘like has met its like’; an echo of L. similem habent labra lactucam, an alleged saying of M. Crassus, when he saw an ass eating thistles.
a1540Barnes Wks. (1573) 189/1 No doubt the prouerbe is true, such lippes such lectuse, such saintes such miracles. 1583Leg. Bp. St. Androis 433 Sic lipps, sic lattouce; lordis and lownes. 1587Fleming Contn. Holinshed III. 1017/2 Like lips, like lettice, as is their cause so are the rulers. 1589Greene Menaphon (Arb.) 92 He left such lettice as were too fine for his lips. 1599H. Buttes Dyets Drie Dinner To Rdrs., Here are Lettuses for euery mans lips. 1619Pasquil's Palin. (1877) 130 If he like not these Lettice, let him pull backe his lips. 1677W. Hughes Man of Sin iii. iv. 140 Well, but the Lettice and the Lips do well together.
3. attrib. and Comb., as lettuce-bed, lettuce-juice, lettuce-leaf, lettuce-seed; † lettuce-cabbage = cabbage-lettuce; lettuce green, a medium shade of green; also attrib.; lettuce-opium = lactucarium; lettuce-water, a decoction of lettuce.
1897M. Kingsley W. Africa 380 The fierce currents of the wet season..play great havoc with these *lettuce beds.
1731Gentl. Mag. I. 408 Make Plantations of *Lettuce Cabbage for Winter use.
1897Sears, Roebuck Catal. 222/2 Delicate tintings of..lemon, *lettuce green, scarlet. 1929E. Wilson I thought of Daisy i. 3, I saw lettuce-green cocktail glasses. 1970Guardian 2 June 7/8 Mimosa, Lettuce Green, Lavender Blue. 1971D. Beaty Temple Tree 157 A lettuce-green shirt.
1832Veg. Subst. Food 299 The narcotic property of *lettuce-juice has been long familiarly known.
c1540Vicary's Anat. (1888) App. 227 Nightshade leaves, *lactuce leaves, henbayne leaves.
1816A. Duncan in Mem. Caled. Hortic. Soc. (1819) II. 312 A substance..which I have denominated Lactucarium or *Lettuce Opium.
1577Mountaine Gardener's Labyrinth ii. 43 *Lettice seedes. 1683Salmon Doron Med. iii. 660 Oyl of Lettice Seeds. 1713Derham Phys.-Theol. 9 note, Some Lettice-Seed being sown..in the open Air.
1836J. M. Gully Magendie's Formul. (ed. 2) 104 *Lettuce water 4 ounces. |