sweet-williamn.
/swiːtˈwɪljəm/ (Also as two words, with or without capitals, or rarely as one word without hyphen.)
1.
a. A species of pink, Dianthus barbatus, cultivated in numerous varieties, bearing closely-clustered flowers of various shades of white and red, usually variegated or parti-coloured.
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the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular cultivated or ornamental plants > particular flower or plant esteemed for flower > [noun] > pinks or carnations
gillyflower1517
carnation1538
clove gillyflower1538
incarnation1538
William1538
pink1566
John1572
Indian eye1573
sops-in-wine1573
sweet John1573
sweet-william1573
tuft gillyflower1573
Colmenier1578
small honesty1578
tol-me-neer1578
London tuft1597
maidenly pink1597
mountain pink1597
clove-carnation1605
musk-gillyflower1607
London pride1629
pride of London1629
maiden pink1650
Indian pink1664
Spanish pink1664
pheasant's eye pink1718
flake1727
flame1727
picotee1727
old man's head1731
painted lady1731
piquet1731
China-pink1736
clove1746
wild pink1753
lime-wort1777
matted thrift1792
clove-pink1837
Cheddar Pink1843
Dianthus1849
bunch pink1857
perpetual-flowering carnation1861
cliff pink1863
meadow pink1866
musk carnation1866
Jack1873
wax-pink1891
Malmaison1892
grenadin1904
1573 T. Tusser Fiue Hundreth Points Good Husbandry (new ed.) f. 41 Herbes, branchis & flowers for windowes & potts... Swete Williams [1577 Sweete Williams].
1578 H. Lyte tr. R. Dodoens Niewe Herball ii. vii. 154 The third [sort of gillofer] is that which we cal in Englishe Sweete Williams and colmeniers.
1616 W. Browne Britannia's Pastorals II. iii. 62 They did..intwine The white, the blewe, the flesh-like Columbine With Pinckes, Sweet-williams.
1786 J. Abercrombie Arrangem. Plants 68/1 in Gardeners Daily Assistant Double mule, or sweet-william pink.
1796 C. Marshall Gardening (1813) xix. 355 Sweet William (or bearded pink) is distinguished into broad and narrow leaved sorts.
1866 M. Arnold Thyrsis vii, in Macmillan's Mag. Apr. 450 Sweet-William with its homely cottage-smell.
1879 E. Dowden Southey 4 A house rich in old English comfort, with its diamond-tiled garden~way,..its sweet-williams and stocks and syringas.
b. Applied to other species of pink, also to plants of other genera:Childing Pink, Dianthus prolifer ( childing sweet-william); the Deptford Pink, D. Armeria (also called sweet-william catchfly); †the Wallflower, Cheiranthus cheiri (obsolete); Lobel's Catchfly, Silene armeria (Treas. Bot.); the Scarlet Lychnis, L. chalcedonica (U.S.); Phlox maculata ( wild sweet-william), of North America; and Ipomœa quamoclit, of Barbados.
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1562 W. Bullein Bk. Simples f. 48v, in Bulwarke of Defence The white and yellow Gilloflower: called sweete William: or hartes ease.
1633 T. Johnson Gerard's Herball (new ed.) ii. 599 Armeria prolifera, Lob. Childing sweet Williams.
1760 J. Lee Introd. Bot. App. 329 Sweet William of Barbadoes, Ipomœa.
1856 A. Gray Man. Bot. Northern U.S. (1860) 330 Phlox maculata..(Wild Sweet-William).
2. † a. Applied to the tope or dogfish. Obsolete.
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the world > animals > fish > subclass Elasmobranchii > order Pleurotremata > [noun] > family Triakidae > mustelus mustelus
sweet-william1730
stinkard1880
1730 S. Dale Taylor's Hist. & Antiq. Harwich 420 Cartilagineous Fishes. 1. The Dog-kind, or such are as long... The Sweet-William.
b. A local name for the goldfinch.
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the world > animals > birds > order Passeriformes (singing) > arboreal families > family Fringillidae (finch) > [noun] > subfamily Carduelinae > genus Carduelis > carduelis carduelis (goldfinch)
goldfincheOE
goldspinka1522
carduel?1530
thistle-finch1589
thistlewarp1598
fool's coata1682
grey pate1728
tailor-warbler1783
redcap1785
sheriff's man1796
goldie?1800
King Harry1824
sweet-william1848
tailor1848
thistle-bird1872
thistle-feeder1904
1848 Zoologist 6 2258 The goldfinch is called a ‘red-cap’, a ‘sweet-William’, a ‘proud tailor’.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1919; most recently modified version published online September 2020).
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