▪ I. columbine, a. and n.1
(ˈkɒlʌmbaɪn)
[ME., a. F. colombin, ad. L. columbīn-us pertaining to a dove or pigeon, dove-coloured, f. columba dove.]
A. adj.
1. Of, belonging to, or of the nature of, a dove or pigeon.
| 1656 Blount Glossogr., Columbine..Dove-like, pertaining to a Dove or Pigeon. 1773 Pennant Genera of Birds (1781) Pref. 15 The Columbine race make a most artless nest; a few sticks laid across suffice. 1835 Selby in Penny Cycl. VII. 367/1 The deviation from the proper Columbine form. |
2. transf. Dove-like; resembling the dove as a type of innocence or gentleness. (Freq. with ref. to Matt. x. 16.) ? Obs.
| c 1386 Chaucer Merch T. 897 The turtle voys is herd, my dowue sweete..Com forth now with thyne eyen columbyn. c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems (1840) 8 Vij maydens..Most columbyne of chere and of lokyng. 1539 Taverner Gard. Wysed. ii. 8 b, To fense our selfes agaynst the wyly and craftye foxes with columbyne prudencie. c 1640 J. Smyth Lives Berkeleys (1883) II. 151 Whether with this serpentine prudence hee had columbine simplicity. 1651 S. Lennard tr. Charron's Wisd. ii. x, Columbine innocency and simplicity. |
3. Of the colour of a pigeon's neck, dove-coloured. ? Obs.
| c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. i. 372 Stone tiburtyne or floody columbyne or spongy rede [cf. Isidore Orig. xix. x. §3 Lapides..Tiburtinus, columbinus, fluvialis, spongia, rubrus]. 1598 Florio, Colombino, doue colour: columbine colour. 1601 Holland Pliny I. 506 The Columbine marle, the Gauls call in their language..Pelias (Doue or Pigeon marle). 1635 [J. Bate] Bk. Extravagants 204 Lake and azure make a violet or columbine colour. 1764 Croker Dict. Arts & Sc., Columbine-colour, or dove-colour, among painters, denotes a kind of violet. 1817 R. Jameson Char. Min. 81 Columbine or pigeon-neck tarnish. |
B. quasi-n.
1. Short for columbine colour.
| 1606 Peacham Graphice (1612) 95 Violets, Columbines and the like. 1763 Dict. Arts & Sc. I. 671 From the same mixture of blue, crimson, and red, are formed the columbine, or dove-colour. |
† 2. For columbine vine (vitis columbina in Pliny).
| 1601 Holland Pliny I. 410 Of all vines, the Columbines yeeld most gleaning. |
† 3. A dove-like person. Obs. (pronunc. coˈlumbine.)
| 1647 J. Hall Poems 72 This innocent Columbine, he, That was the marke of rage before, O cannot now admired be, But still admired, still needs more. |
† 4. Some kind of bird.
| 1698 Fryer E. Ind. & Persia in Phil. Trans. XX. 342 He describes a sort of Bird call'd a Columbine, making a Noise like a Bittern. |
▪ II. columbine, n.2
(ˈkɒlʌmbaɪn)
Forms: 4–6 columbyn(e, 5 colombyne, ? colybyn, 6–7 collom-, collumbine, -byne, cullom-, cullam-, cullumbine, -byne, 7 colombine, 4– columbine.
[a. F. colombine, in med.L. columbīna (? sc. herba) = dove's plant: see prec.]
1. The English name for plants of the genus Aquilegia, esp. the long-cultivated A. vulgaris, or common columbine, the inverted flower of which has some resemblance to five pigeons clustered together.
(The horned nectaries suggested to an earlier age allusions to cuckoldry: cf. quots. 1602–5.)
| a 1310 in Wright Lyric P. v. (Percy Soc.) 26 The prime-role he passeth, the parvenke of pris..Coynte ase columbine, such hire cunde ys. a 1400 Pistel of Susan 111 Columbyne and Charuwe. c 1450 Alphita (Anecd. Oxon.) 42. 1494 Fabyan vii. 587 The seconde course Gely coloured with columbyne floures. 1530 Palsgr. 207/1 Columbyne floure, cocquelourde. 1579 Spenser Sheph. Cal. Apr. 136 Bring hether the Pincke and purple Cullambine. 1602 Shakes. Ham. iv. v. 180 There's Fennell for you, and Columbines: ther's Rew for you, and heere's some for me. 1605 Chapman All Fools, What's that? a columbine? No: that thankless flower grows not in my garden. 1856 Bryant To Fringed Gentian ii, Columbines, in purple dressed, Nod o'er the ground-bird's hidden nest. a 1861 Mrs. Browning Lost Bower xxiv. The large-leaved columbine. |
† 2. A name for Verbena officinalis. Obs.
| [c 1000 Sax. Leechd. I. 170 Berbena..ys culfron swiðe hiwcuð, þanan hy eac sum þeodscipe columbinam hateð.] c 1450 Alphita (Anecd. Oxon.) 142. 1597 Gerard Herbal 581 Veruain is called..of some Pigeons grasse, or Columbine, bicause Pigeons are delighted to be amongst it. |
† 3. feathered columbine: ‘a frequent book-name for Thalictrum aquilegifolium, an old-fashioned garden plant, which Parkinson calls Tufted Colombine’ (Britten and Holland). Obs.
| 1629 Parkinson Paradisus 274 Thalictrum Hispanicum album, White Spanish tufted Colombines. Thalictrum Montanum purpureum, Purple tufted Colombines. |
† 4. An ornament in the form of the flower. Obs.
| [1436 E.E. Wills (1882) 106 A stondynge cuppe gilt, shapp of a columbyn.] 1459 Inv. Sir J. Fastolf in Paston Lett. I. 473 Item, j. gobelet, gilt, with j. columbyne in the bottom. 1491 Will of Bufford (Somerset Ho.), A colombyne of siluer. 1554 Bury Wills (1850) 145 Oon flat silver pece w{supt} a collumbyne in the bottome. |
5. attrib. and comb.
| 1657 W. Coles Adam in Eden ii. 4 Columbine leafed Pyony. 1747 Wesley Prim. Physic (1762) 83 A Teaspoonful of Columbine seeds. |