| 释义 |
‖ mescal|mɛˈskəl|
Also 8 mescale, 8–9 mezcal, 9 mascal, mexcal, mexical, mixcal, muscal(e.
[Sp. mezcal, a. Mexican mexcalli.]
1. A strong intoxicating spirit distilled from the fermented juice of the American aloe.
1828Sir H. G. Ward Mexico I. 59 A strong kind of brandy called mexical, or Aguardiente de Maguey. 1833B. Lundy Jrnl. 16 Oct. in Life B. Lundy (1847) x. 61 They have a kind of whiskey here, called muscal, which is distilled from a plant called Maguey. 1850W. R. Ryan Personal Adventures Upper & Lower Calif. I. 193 The usual beverages, besides water, are wine, mascal, and aguardiente. 1854Bartlett Explor. Texas, etc. I. 290 Mezcal, or aguardiente. 1854in Southwestern Hist. Q. (1931–2) XXXV. 235 About one dozen men came over, bringing..muscal liquor... This Liquor has a tast between whiskey and brandy, and considerable intoxicating power. 1887F. Francis Saddle & Mocassin iv. 68 The Mexican..reduced himself to a state of complete intoxication with mascal. 1888F. C. Gooch Face to face w. Mexicans 562 Mescal is made from a liquor obtained by pressing the leaves of the maguey in a mill. 1926D. H. Lawrence Plumed Serp. iv. 80 The fiery white brandy distilled from the maguey: mescal, tequila. 1947M. Lowry Under Volcano x. 319 There had been until recently several drinks of mescal (why not?—the word did not intimidate him, eh?) waiting for him outside in a lemonade bottle. 1974Encycl. Brit. Macropædia X. 972/2 The alcoholic liquor mescal is distilled from pulque.
2. a. Any of several plants of the genus Agave found in Mexico and the southwestern United States that are used as sources of fermented liquor, food, or fibre, esp. the American aloe or maguey, A. americana, a stemless plant having long spiny leaves.
1743J. Lockman tr. Trav. Jesuits I. 399 On the Mountains grew Mescales, a fruit peculiar to the Country, and is gathered all the year round. 1759[see 2 b]. 1808W. Shaler Jrnl. Voy. between China & Amer. (1935) 53 They also have a plant called the mixcal. 1848W. H. Emory Notes Mil. Reconn. 59 This afternoon I found the famous mezcal, (an agave,) about three feet in diameter, broad leaves, armed with teeth like a shark. 1851Mayne Reid Scalp Hunt. i. 14 The agave, the far-famed mezcal-plant of Mexico. 1886Ann. Rep. Smithsonian Inst. (1889) ii. 652 Mescal fiber, Arizona. 1891Century Mag. Mar. 653 Along deserts bristling with spines of the cactus, spanish bayonet, mescal and palo verde. 1914C. F. Saunders With Flowers & Trees in Calif. 139 The mescal buds are capable of making by distillation one of the fieriest intoxicants known. 1951Kearney & Peebles Arizona Flora ii. 192 The names century-plant and mescal are applied to the large, paniculate species, and some of the small species are known as lechuguilla and amole.
b. The cooked root of the mescal as an article of food.
1759tr. Venegas's Nat. & Civil Hist. Calif. I. 44 The mountains and forests yield the mezcal,..the root of which boiled is a principal ingredient of the mexcalli. 1831J. O. Pattie Personal Narr. 63, I afterwards ascertained that it was a vegetable called by the Spanish mascal (probably maguey). 1844J. Gregg Commerce Prairies I. 290 Those [Apaches] that are found east of the Rio del Norte are generally known as Mezcaleros, on account of an article of food in use among them, called mezcal. Ibid., Mezcal is the baked root of the maguey. 1881Amer. Naturalist XV. 875 The ‘mescal’ of the Arizona Apaches, that is, the baked head of the Agave palmeri and Agave parryi. 1951Kearney & Peebles Arizona Flora ii. 192 The name ‘mescal’ is applied also to the food obtained by roasting the caudex and emerging flower stalk. Ibid. 193 Even at the present time a small quantity of mescal is made by the Papagos.
3. a. A small desert cactus, Lophophora williamsii (formerly Anhalonium lewinii, etc.), found in northern Mexico and southern Texas and having a soft, segmented body a few inches high in the form of a flattened globe. Cf. peyote.
1885[see mescal head in 4]. 1895Therapeutic Gaz. XI. 579/2 In connection with the physiological action of the mescal, its use by the Indians is of great interest. 1896Ibid. XII. 8/1 The exercises open with a prayer by the leader, who then hands each man four mescals, which he takes and eats. 1911Encycl. Relig. & Ethics IV. 736/1 The Nahuatl peyotl..under the incorrect title of mescal.. is well known to the whites. 1920Sci. Amer. 14 Feb. 157 The peyote, often popularly miscalled ‘mescal’ through confusion with the maguey cactus from which a fiery intoxicant is prepared, is a species of small cactus widely used for both medicinal and ceremonial purposes by the Indian tribes of the southwestern U.S. 1937J. Borg Cacti 209 Lophophora Williamsii (Lem.) Coulter... This is the famous mescal or peyotl of the ancient Mexicans.
b. A preparation of the cactus for ingestion.
1896Brit. Med. Jrnl. 5 Dec. 1625/2 The history of the use of mescal by the Indians of New Mexico is very well known in the United States. 1899Jrnl. Physiol. XXX. 83 ‘Mescal’ never gives rise to merriment, but rather to a condition of ideal content, and produces wakefulness. 1937J. Borg Cacti 209 The dried tops of the plant made into bunches or wreaths used to be sold as mescal.
4. attrib. and Comb., as mescal-eater, mescal intoxication; mescal-inspired adj.; mescal button, a dried disc-like top of the cactus Lophophora williamsii, eaten or drunk as a decoction for its intoxicating and hallucinogenic effects (cf. mescaline); also, the plant itself, = sense 3 a; mescal head = mescal button.
1888Therapeutic Gaz. IV. 232/1, I undertook to experiment with a drug..which they had received from Mexico. In its own country the drug is said to be called ‘Muscale Buttons’, and is used as a narcotic, food, or relish. Ibid., Anhalonium Lewinii, nov. spec., Mexico. Local name, ‘Muscale Buttons’. 1896Brit. Med. Jrnl. 5 Dec. 1625/2, I took fully 1½ drachm of an extract of which each drachm represented one mescal button. 1913Jrnl. Nervous & Mental Dis. XL. 427 We endeavoured further to extend knowledge of pathological mental states by producing mental conditions nearly allied to generally recognized types of insanity... For this purpose we used the Mexican drug [printed drag] pelotte—the mescal button. 1959O. & M. Leese Desert Plants iv. 41 There are too the Lophophoras or Anhaloniums, known as the Mescal Button or Peyote, which are devoid of spines and look somewhat like a denizen of the sea.
1934R. Hamer in R. Skelton Poetry of Thirties (1964) 88 The mescal-eater's almost heard Omnipotent transcendental word.
1885Outing Oct. 24/2 The old and young squaws..had brought down from the hillsides donkey-loads of mescal-heads. 1933L. Spier Yuman Tribes 55 The mescal heads were baked in a pit.
1946in M. Lowry Let. 2 Jan. (1967) 61 The mescal-inspired phantasmagoria, or heebie-jeebies, to which Geoffrey has succumbed.
1897Lancet 5 June 1541/2 It cannot be said (from my experience) that the pleasure of mescal intoxication lies in any resultant passive emotional state such as is produced by tea or alcohol, but strictly in enjoyment of the colour visions produced. |