Fwd: "shamrock" - Word of the Day from the OED

[Dave Monroe]

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Date: Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 8:30 PM
Subject: "shamrock" - Word of the Day from the OED
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OED Online Word of the Day

shamrock

SECOND EDITION 1989

(æmrk)  Forms: . 6 shamrote, 7 shamroot; . 6 shamrocke, sham-roke, 7
schamrock, shamrook, 7 shamocke, 8 shammock, shamroque, 6- shamrock; .
7 shamrogh, -rogth, shamerag, shamrug, -rogue, (chamroch), 7-8
shamrog(e, 8 shamrogge, (shambrogue, -brogh). [a. Irish seamróg (=
Gael. seamrag), dim. of seamar clover.]

    1. A plant with trifoliate leaves, used (according to a late
tradition) by St. Patrick to illustrate the doctrine of the Trinity,
and hence adopted as the national emblem of Ireland; a spray or leaf
of this plant.
  The ‘shamrock’ of the legend has been conjecturally identified with
many different plants, e.g. the white clover Trifolium repens, the red
clover, T. pratense, the black medic, Medicago lupulina, the
wood-sorrel, Oxalis Acetosella, and the water-cress. The name is now
most commonly applied to the lesser yellow trefoil, Trifolium minus,
which is the plant most frequently worn as an emblem on St. Patrick's
Day.

1571 CAMPION Hist. Irel. I. vi. (1633) 18 Shamrotes, Water-cresses,
Rootes, and other hearbes they feede upon. 1610 HOLLAND Camden's Brit.
II. 147 They feed willingly upon..Mushromes, Shamroots and rootes.
1613 WITHER Abuses Stript I. viii. Juvenilia (1633) 61 In no more
cloathing than a mantle goe; And feed on Sham-rootes as the Irish doe.
1577 STANYHURST Descr. Irel. viii. 28/1 in Holinshed, Water cresses,
which they terme shamrocks, rootes and other herbes they feede vpon.
1596 SPENSER State Irel. Wks. (Globe) 654/2 Yf they founde a plotte of
water-cresses or sham-rokes, there they flocked as to a feast for the
time. 1597 GERARDE Herbal II. cccclxxvii. 1018 Medow Trefoile is
called..in Irish Shamrockes. 1617 MORYSON Itin. III. 163 They
willingly eate the hearb Schamrock. 1627 J. TAYLOR (Water-P.) Armado
C1b, Their fare being many times shamrookes, oaten-bread, beanes and
butter-milke. 1630 DEKKER 2nd Pt. Honest Wh. III. i. E2b, Worse then
damnation, a wild Kerne,..Longed you for Shamocke? 1682 PIERS Descr.
West-Meath (1770) 121 Butter, new cheese, and curds and shamrocks, are
the food of the meaner sort all this season. 1775 SHERIDAN St.
Patrick's Day I. i, I put a great shammock in his hat this morning.
1781 C. JOHNSTON Hist. J. Juniper I. 28 He marked our young hero on
the left breast with a shamroque. 1813 T. MOORE Oh the Shamrock! 16
Chosen leaf Of Bard and Chief, Old Erin's native Shamrock! 1856 O. W.
HOLMES For Meeting Burns Club 52 We drink a triple health,the Rose,
The Shamrock, and the Thistle! 1901 Daily Express 18 Mar. 5/7 Covent
Garden sent King Edward a four-leaved shamrock on Saturday.
1611 SPEED Theat. Gt. Brit. IV. i. 138/2 Feeding vpon water-cresses,
rootes, mushromes, shamrogh, butter tempered with oate-meale. 1622 J.
TAYLOR (Water-P.) Sir Greg. Nonsence Wks. 1630 II. 4/2 Whilst all the
Hibernian Kernes in multitudes Did feast with Shamerags stew'd in
Vsquebagh. 1632 HOLLAND Cyrupædia I. i. 4 margin, Cresses..of which
the Irish Shamrogth are a kinde. 1643 J. TAYLOR (Water-P.)
Preter-pluperfect 4 Some Bookes also of Irish Rebellion were devoured
as they had been Shamrogs [misprinted Shamroys]. 1681 DINELEY in Jrnl.
Kilkenny Archæol. Soc. (1858) I. 183 The 17nth day of March yeerly is
St Patricks, an immoveable feast, when..the vulgar superstitiously
wear shamroges, 3 leav'd grass. 1699 E. LHWYD in Phil. Trans. (1712)
XXVII. 506 Their Shamrug is the common Clover. 1712 STEELE Spect. No.
455 2 The Scotch Thistle, the Irish Shambrogue. 1741 Gentl. Mag. XI.
438/1 Go little Shamrogge, and adorn My pretty Flavia's breast this
morn.

    b. to drown the shamrock: to drink, or go drinking, in honour of
the shamrock, on St. Patrick's day.

[1726 C. THRELKELD Syn. Stirpium Hibern. s.v. Trifolium, This Plant is
worn by the People..upon..St. Patrick's Day. It being a current
Tradition, that by this Three Leafed Grass, he emblematically set
forth to them the Mystery of the Holy Trinity. However that be, when
they wet their Seamar-oge, they often commit Excess in Liquor, which
is not a right keeping of a Day to the Lord.] 1888 Daily Tel. 22 Mar.
(Farmer), An Irishman..on Saturday last resolved to drown the shamrock
in the orthodox fashion. 1901 Ibid. 18 Mar. 10/6 The oportunities for
‘drowning the shamrock’ were commendably abbreviated by the law.

    2. Applied with defining word to some other plants (see quots.).

1884 W. MILLER Plant-n. 124/2 Shamrock, Blue-flowered. Parochetus
communis... Shamrock, Indian. Trillium latifolium. 1889 J. H. MAIDEN
Usef. Native Plants 143 Trigonella suavissima..is the ‘Australian
shamrock’ of Mitchell. 1898 MORRIS Austral Eng., Shamrock, Native, a
forage plant, Lotus australis.

    3. attrib. and Comb.: shamrock pea, Parochetus communis (Miller,
Plant-n. 1884); shamrockshire, a jocular name for Ireland.

1581 J. DERRICKE Image of Irelande (1883) 8 My soule dooeth detest
their wilde shamrocke manners. 1689 Irish Hudibras 80 Which..Makes Wit
so scarce in Shamrogeshire. 1724 MOFFET Hesperi-neso-gr. (1755) 3
Priests in Shambroghshire, they say, Can women kiss, as well as pray.
1900 Daily News 9 Apr. 5/6 The same shamrock-embroidered bonnet.


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