| 单词 | witches' butter |
| 释义 | > as lemmaswitches' butter witches' butter n. (also witch's butter) †(a) a frothy secretion exuded on plants by larvae of certain insects; cuckoo spit (obsolete rare); (b) any of various organisms occurring in gelatinous masses, esp. a jelly fungus and the cyanobacterium nostoc, Nostoc commune; cf. fairy butter n. 1.Probably so called (in both senses) from a belief that such material was left or used by witches. ΘΚΠ the world > plants > particular plants > fungi > [noun] > tremella fungi fairy butter1700 witches' butter1718 Tremella1760 witch butter1847 witches' meat1849 the world > plants > particular plants > algae > [noun] > nostoc star slime1440 slime1471 nostoc?1609 star shot1653 star1666 star jelly1702 shot star1811 witches' meat1849 will-o'-the-wisp1863 witches' butter1922 1718 F. Hutchinson Hist. Ess. conc. Witchcraft vi. 99 Such Froth in Meadows and Gardens is not from Witches and Spirits spewing, but from Grasshoppers, and other little Insects..; and when I see Swedish Judges..learn from the Rabble to call it Witches Butter, and hang and burn their Neighbours from such Evidence; I cannot but stand amazed. 1836 M. J. Berkeley in J. E. Smith Eng. Flora V. ii. 218 E[xidia] glandulosa. (Witches' Butter.) 1861 H. Macmillan Footnotes from Nature 288 The wrinkled, quaking, gelatinous mass of the witches' butter. 1922 C. L. Abbott What comes from What 7 Star jelly or witches' butter, found on damp ground, consists of colonies of Nostoc. 2007 National Trust Mag. Autumn 75/1 With names like devil's fingers, the sickener, slippery Jack, witches' butter and destroying angel, it's no surprise that some mushroom myths have persisted into modern times. 2020 M. Blocksma Heartland Habitats 78 I'm always startled when a mass of witch's butter, so intensely, deeply yellow, appears on its dark host. < as lemmas |
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