▪ I. whin1
(hwɪn)
Forms: 5 quyn, qwynne, wyne, 5–7 whyn(ne, 6 whyne, Sc. quyin, 6–7 whinne, whine, Sc. quhinn(e, 7 win, whimme, (9 dial.) whim, Sc. (9 dial.) quhin, 8 (9 dial.) whinn, 8–9 Sc. and dial. whun, 6– whin.
[app. orig. northern, and prob. of Scand. origin (cf. Sw. hven, early Da. hvine, hvinegræs, -strå, Norw. hvine, hvén, kvein, applied to certain grasses); the evidence goes to show that gorse was formerly of economic importance in the areas of special Scand. influence.
This origin is more probable than that which has been proposed from OWelsh chwynn weeds (mod. chwyn), cognate with Breton chouenna to hoe, weed.]
1. The common furze or gorse, Ulex europæus.
Often collect. pl. and sing. for a clump or mass of the shrub, or a quantity of it used for fuel, fencing, etc.
| c 1400 Ywaine & Gaw. 159 A strete, Ful thik and hard,..With thornes, breres, and moni a quyn. c 1425 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 643/32 Hec saliunca, wyne. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 524/2 Whynne, saliunca. 1538 Turner Libellus, Paliurus, uarias habet subspecies, quarum una est frutex ille quem all[i]oqui a whyn allij a furre nominant. 1549 MSS. Dk. Rutland (Hist. MSS. Comm.) IV. 352 For fellyng and ledyng of xj lodes of whynnes..iijs. viijd. 1573–80 Tusser Husb. (1878) 119 With whinnes or with furzes thy houell renew. 1578 Lyte Dodoens vi. ix. 669 The common Whyn, or great Furze. 1606 in Trans. Cumbld. & Westmld. Archaeol. Soc. (1903) III. 152 That none..shall cutt any whinne to burne upon paine of vid. 1610 Markham Masterp. ii. xxiv. 258 Rough hay, full of whims [ed. 1636 whimmes, 1675 whins], thistels, or other pricking stuffe. 1698 A. de la Pryme Diary (Surtees 1869) 178 When all their fother was done, they took green whinz,..stampt them..to bruise all their pricles, and then gave them to their beasts. 1721 Ramsay Ode to the Ph― ii, Driving their Baws frae Whins or Tee, There's no ae Gowfer to be seen. 1815 J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 597 Whins or common furze make a valuable fence. 1859 H. Kingsley G. Hamlyn v, Down beyond down, a vast sheet of purple heath and golden whin. 1878 Susan Phillips On Seaboard 254 Between the whin and the workhouse they pulled the old fox down. 1882 Garden 13 May 324/3 The double flowering Whin (Furze). |
2. Applied to other prickly or thorny shrubs, as rest-harrow and buckthorn; also to heather.
| 1530 Palsgr. 288/1 Whynne, bruiere. Whynnes or hethe, bruiere. 1548 Turner Names Herbes (E.D.S.) 13 Anonis called also Ononis is called..in Cambryge Shyre a whyne. 1570 Levins Manip. 133/14 A Whin, rhamnus. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Whin or Petty Whin, a Shrub, otherwise call'd Knee-holm. 1854 A. E. Baker Northampt. Gloss., Whin, the rest-harrow. |
3. With distinctive additions, in local names of various prickly shrubs:
cammock,
lady-,
land-whin = petty whin (
a);
cat('s) whin = petty whin; also dwarf furze, dog-rose, burnet-rose;
heather-,
moor-,
moss-,
needle-whin = petty whin (
b);
petty whin, (
a) Turner's name for the Rest-harrow,
Ononis arvensis; (
b) the Needle-furze,
Genista anglica.
| 14.. MS. Laud 553, lf. 18 Reta bouis is an herbe þ{supt} me clepuþ cammok whynne or calketrap. 1551 Turner Herbal i. D j, Petye Whyne, or grounde Whyne, or lytle Whyne is called in latyn, & Greke ononis, and anonis... In cambryge shyre thys herbe is called a whyne, but I putt pety to it, to make dyfference betwene thys herbe, and a fur: whyche in manye places of Englande is also called a Whyne. 1579 Langham Gard. Health 527 Restharrow, Cammok, or Petywhin. 1650 [W. Howe] Phytol. Brit. 45 Genistella..Needle Furze or Petty Whin. 1684 Meriton Praise Ale 108 (E.D.S.) Our Land is tewgh, and full of..Cat-whins. 1763 Museum Rust. I. lxxxv. 377 Such barren sandy heaths where petty-whin, heather, and short furze, plentifully grow. 1788 W. Marshall E. Yorksh. II. Gloss. (E.D.S.) Cat-whin, sb. rosa spinosissima, burnet rose. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Land-whin, s., the rest-harrow. 1853 G. Johnston Bot. E. Bord. 51 G[enista] anglica. Moor-Whin: Heather-Whin: Moss-Whin. 1878 Cumbld. Gloss., Cat-whin, the dwarf whin. Ulex nanus. 1886 Britten & Holland Plant-n., Lady-whin, Ononis arvensis,..Encyclopædia of Agriculture. |
4. attrib. and
Comb., as
whin-bloom,
whin-covert,
whin-cow (
cow n.2),
whin-fence,
whin-flower,
whin-hack (
hack n.1),
whin-pod,
whin-prick,
whin-prickle,
whin-root,
whin-seed;
whin-kid, a bundle of whin; hence
whin-kid vb., to fence or thatch with whin;
whin-linnet (see
quots.);
whin-mill, a mill for crushing whin for horse-feed;
whin-thrush, a local name for the redwing,
= winnard;
whin-wrack, a species of grass (see
quot.).
| 1824 Mactaggart Gallovid. Encycl., *Whun blooms, the yellow blooms of the whin. 1865 Allingham 50 Mod. Poems, Among the Heather ii, Your mountain air is sweet..When..the whinbloom smells like honey. |
| 1843 Zoologist I. 80 Walking through a straggling *whin-covert. |
| 1826 Scott Jrnl. 28 Feb. in Lockhart, If you would have a horse kick, make a crupper out of a *whin-cow. |
| 1797 J. Bailey & Culley Agric. Cumberld. 185 Large tracts..inclosed by *whin-fences. |
| 1897 Watts-Dunton Aylwin xvii, Making the gold coins round her neck shine like dewy *whin-flowers struck by the sunrise. |
| 1585–6 Wills & Inv. Durham (Surtees) ii. 131, iij *whine hackes. |
| 1651 N. Riding Rec. V. 90 Six *whyn kidds. 1841 Instit. Civil Eng. Min. Proc. I. 141 The author..has lately been..warping silt, with whin or gorse kids, laid horizontally. 1876 Mid-Yorks. Gloss. s.v., The parcels of land [are]..whin-kydded about. |
| 1837 Macgillivray Brit. Birds I. 371 Linaria cannabina. The Brown Linnet... *Whin Linnet. Greater Redpoll. 1862 Johns Brit. Birds 625 Whin Linnet, the Common Linnet. |
| 1793 in Trans. Buchan Field Club (1935) XIV. 76 Carrying wood for the *whine mile. 1893 C. A. Mollyson Parish of Fordoun 188 With a plentiful supply of oilcake and other nutritious feeding stuffs there is no place now for the whin-mill. 1957 E. E. Evans Irish Folk Ways viii. 110 The knocking stones..where the whins were ‘melled’ with a wooden maul, are sometimes to be seen in the farmyard, and there were a few water-driven ‘whin⁓mills’. |
| 1874 Stevenson Ess. Trav., On Unpleas. Places 246 The..crackling of the *whin-pods in the afternoon sun. |
| 1664 Power Exp. Philos. i. 13 The little white Field-Spider..imboss'd all over with black Knobs, out of..which grow bristles or prickles like *whin-pricks. |
| 1899 Crockett Kit Kennedy xxxvi, As if they had been sitting on *whin prickles. |
| 1586 Depos. Durham (Surtees) 320 My good man's horse fest at a *whinne roote. 1824 Mactaggart Gallovid. Encycl. 28 Harrows wi' teeth o' whunroots. |
| 1765 A. Dickson Treat. Agric. (ed. 2) 122 Every time that the land is turned into grass, the *whin-seeds near the surface will vegetate. |
| 1848 Zoologist VI. 2290 The redwing is in G[loucestershire] a ‘*whin thrush’. |
| 1853 G. Johnston Bot. E. Bord. 212 Holcus mollis... *Whin-wrack,—so called because it is found to occupy places whence Whins have been removed. |
▪ II. whin2 Sc. and
north. dial. (
hwɪn)
Forms: 4
quin, 6
Sc. quhin,
quhyn(e, 6, 9
whun, 8
whyn(n, 8–
whin, (9
whinn,
Sc. whunn,
fin).
[Origin obscure.] = whinstone.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 7531 He tok fiue stans rond o quin, And put þam in his scrip wit-in. 1513 Douglas æneis iv. vii. 8 Of ane cald hard quhyn, The clekkit that horrible mont, Caucasus hait. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. (Rolls) I. 56 Greit cragis of quhin. 1599 A. Hume Hymnes iii. 133 The blew paymented whun [rime sun]. 1708 J. C. Compl. Collier (1845) 12 If a Whin (which is the hardest sort of Stone..) lye in the way. 1799 Kendal Geol. Ess. 310 Carbonated wood is frequently found under trap, whin, or basalt. 1864 A. Miller Coatbridge ii. 8 Where the Ironstone comes into conjunction with whin it is..much impregnated with pyrites. |
b. attrib. and
Comb., as
whin boulder,
whin-dike (
dike n.1 9 b),
whin-float (
float n. 20 a),
whin gravel;
whin-rock, whinstone;
whin-sill, a sill or layer of whinstone; also as a name for whinstone.
| 1873 Geikie Gt. Ice Age xi. 152 Gravel and stones with large ‘*whin’ boulders. |
| 1789 J. Williams Min. Kingd. I. 29 Dykes of basaltes, or other hard stone, which are commonly called *whin dykes. 1825 E. Mackenzie View Northumbld. (ed. 2) I. 81 The Whin-dikes are filled with basalt, which has apparently issued hot from the interior parts of the earth. 1845 J. Phillips Geol. in Encycl. Metrop. VI. 619/1 A few faults in the magnesian limestone range of Durham and Yorkshire, as along the line of the great whindyke. |
| 1883 Gresley Gloss. Coal-m., *Whin-float, a kind of greenstone, basalt, or trap, occurring in coal measures. |
| 1799 Trans. Soc. Arts XVII. 246 Clayey loams, limestone gravel, *whin gravel. |
| 1683 G. Sinclair Nat. Philos. 277 An impregnable *Whin-Rock, or Flinty Stone. 1785 Burns Death & Dr. Hornbook xviii, I might as weel hae try'd a quarry O' hard whin rock. 1806 Forsyth Beauties Scot. IV. 58 All the hills are whin-rock. |
| 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 748 In Cumberland the metalliferous limestone includes a bed of trap, designated under the name of *whinsill. 1845 J. Phillips Geol. in Encycl. Metrop. VI. 756/1 The origin of the whin-sill. 1869 Phillips Vesuv. iv. 128 The toadstone in Derbyshire, or the whinsill in Teesdale. |
▪ III. whin see
wheen,
whim n.1 ¶ .