god-bushn.
/ˈɡɒdbʊʃ/, U.S. /ˈɡɑdˌbʊʃ/, Caribbean English /ˈɡɑdˌbʊʃ/ Chiefly Jamaican.
Originally: any of various tropical American mistletoes (see mistletoe n. 1b). In later use also: any of several other parasitic plants, including dodders ( Cuscuta species) and the Eurasian mistletoe Viscum album.
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the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular cultivated or ornamental plants > cultivated or ornamental trees and shrubs > [noun] > mistletoe > types of or plants related to
mistletoe1597
hyphear1601
god-bush1850
1850 J. Macfadyen Flora Jamaica II. 198 West-India Mistletoe... receives the name of the God-Bush from the Negroes.
1851 P. H. Gosse Naturalist's Sojourn Jamaica 131 But what interests me most in this place is a flourishing Misseltoe, or God-bush, as the negroes call it.
1864 A. H. R. Grisebach Flora Brit. W. Indian Islands 784/1 Gad-bush, Arceuthobium gracile.
1892 J. H. Hart Cacao x. 59 There are also one or two species of Cuscuta or ‘Dodder’ which cause considerable damage. These plants are known as ‘God Bush’ in several of the West Indian Islands.
1914 W. Fawcett & A. B. Rendle Flora Jamaica III. 88 The members of this family [sc. Loranthaceæ] are generally known by the popular names, Godbush and Mistletoe.
1961 F. G. Cassidy Jamaica Talk xvi. 380 There is god-bush too, the mistletoe.
1997 Scotl. on Sunday (Nexis) 9 Feb. (Spectrum section) 17 A gardener in central Edinburgh has sent me berries from the ‘god-bush’ in his garden. He himself sowed the seed..by cutting the bark of a John Downie crab-apple and pressing the mistletoe berries into the wound.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1850