| 释义 |
loosestrife|ˈluːsstraɪf|
Also 6 lose-, lous(e)strife, lostriffe.
[f. loose v. + strife n.; a mistransl. of late L. lysimachia, also -machion, a. Gr. λυσιµάχιον, f. the personal name λυσίµαχος Lysimachus, an application of the adj. λυσίµαχος ‘loosing’ (i.e. ending) strife, f. λυσι-, combining stem of λύειν to loose + µάχη strife.
The form *λυσιµαχία (found only in Pliny's Latin transliteration) would be correct Gr. for ‘the action of loosing strife’. The misinterpretation of the word is ancient; Pliny, though stating that the plant was discovered by one Lysimachus, also says that oxen that are made to eat it are rendered more willing to draw together. Ancient writers mention two kinds of lysimachia, the purple and the yellow, the descriptions of which agree with the two plants referred to in 1 below. Modern botanists have appropriated Lysimachia as a generic name to the ‘yellow loosestrife’.]
1. The name for two common herbaceous plants resembling each other closely in growth (upright and tall) and habitat (margins of ditches and streams).
a. Lysimachia vulgaris (family Primulaceæ), flowering in July, and bearing racemes of golden-yellow flowers; called spec. Golden or Yellow Loosestrife. Also a book-name for the genus.
1548Turner Names of Herbes (1881) 50 Some cal it Lycimachiam luteam..it may be called in englishe yealow Lousstryfe or herbe Wylowe. 1562― Herbal ii. 44 It may be well called after the etimologi of the worde and also of y⊇ vertue that it hath lous strife. 1578Lyte Dodoens i. li. 75 The yellow Lysimachus or golden Louse stryfe. 1640Parkinson Theatr. Bot. 543 Common yellow Loosestrife or Willow herbe. 1861Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. IV. 236 Great Yellow Loosestrife... Its large yellow panicle has leaves growing among the blossoms.
b. Lythrum Salicaria (family Lythraceæ), blooming in summer months, with a beautiful showy spike of purplish-red flowers; called spec. Red, Purple, or Spiked Loosestrife. Also a book-name for the genus.
1548Turner Names of Herbes (1881) 50 Lycimachia purpurea..may be called in englishe red loosstryfe, or purple losestryfe. 1567J. Maplet Gr. Forest 51 Other will haue it called Lostriffe or Herbe Willow. It beareth a red flower. 1633Johnson Gerarde's Herbal ii. cxxix. 478 This lesser purple Loose-strife of Clusius. 1785Martyn Rousseau's Bot. xx. (1794) 278 Purple Loosestrife is a handsome plant. 1838M. Howitt Pheasant i, The loose-strife's purple spear. 1866M. Arnold Thyrsis xiii, When through the Wytham flats, Red loosestrife and blond meadow-sweet among,..We tracked the shy Thames shore. 1889P. H. Emerson Eng. Idyls 83 Their sea-boots crushed the purple loosestrife into the ground.
2. Applied (as a book-name) with qualifications to plants of other genera (see quots.).
1760J. Lee Introd. Bot. App. 317 Podded Loose-strife, Epilobium. Ibid., Yellow Virginian Loose-strife, Gaura. 1787tr. Linnæus' Fam. Plants I. 254 Gaura, Virginian Loosestrife. 1866Treas. Bot. 695/1 False Loosestrife, Ludwigia. Swamp-L., Deocodon. West Indian L., Jussiæa suffruticosa. |