"shamrock" - Word of the Day from the OED

[rich]

can't avoid listening to the Wolfe Tones every St Patty's day--James
Connolly, Sean South of Garryowen, Rifles of the IRA, The Men Behind
the Wire--sucker for republican music
(though I wore orange today on the Streets of NYC--left the UDA shirt at home)

a new biopic about Bobby Sands has just been released, directed by
Steve McQueen--looking fwd to seeing that
I still have a play in my head--a long conversation between Sands and
Margaret Thatcher which ends rather erotically, tentatively titled
MILF

rich

On 3/17/09, Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From:  <oedwotd at oup.com>
> Date: Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 8:30 PM
> Subject: "shamrock" - Word of the Day from the OED
> To: OEDWOTD-AMER-L at webber.uk.hub.oup.com
>
>
> 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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