| 释义 |
braxy, n. and a. Sc.|ˈbræksɪ|
Forms: see below.
[Etymology and even form uncertain: Jamieson has the forms braik (sing.), bracks (pl.), braxes (pl.), and braxit, as well as braxy. Either the latter is orig. an adj. brax-y, formed from a collective pl. bracks, brax (cf. peasy, poxy), or it is an erroneous sing. deduced from braxes, as if this were braxie-s. Prob. ‘the bracks’ is the original, being a special use of the pl. of brack in some sense derived from break. Cf. OE. bræc rheum, catarrh, also bræc-cóðu and bræc-séocnes falling sickness, bræc-séoc ill with falling sickness. As examples of the ways in which names of diseases are treated, we may compare pox for pocks, axis, axes, axys (often as pl.) for access, jaundys pl. for jaundice.]
1. The popular name in Scotland of splenic apoplexy in sheep; an inflammatory disease of the internal parts, rapid and fatal in its effect.
1791Statist. Acc. Scotl. IV. 8 (Lethnot, Forf.) A disease which is here called the Braxes. ― Ibid. 242 (Barry, Forf.) Among the shepherds it is called the Bracks. ― Ibid. II. 440 (Selkirk) The braxy as some call it.1793Ibid. IX. 326 The sheep that died of the braxy in the latter end of autumn. 1822W. J. Napier Store-farming 58 The sickness or braxy has been very fatal in many parts of this country.
2. as adj. Characterized by this disease, as braxy-sheep, braxy mutton; also absol. the flesh of a braxy sheep, or, generally, of one that has died by disease or accident.
1785Burns Ep. W. Simson xix, While moorlan herds like guid, fat braxies. 1854H. Miller Sch. & Schm. ix. (1857) 165 Two tall pyramids of braxy mutton heaped up each on a corn-riddle. 1863N. Macleod in Gd. Words 503 The occasional dinner luxury of Braxy,—a species of mutton which need not be too minutely inquired into. 1880Cornh. Mag. June 691 Braxy is the flesh of sheep which have died a natural death, by flood, drift, or disease.
Hence braxied ppl. a.
1870Stewart Lochaber xix. (1883) 112 A tender lamb or braxied sheep. |