Mary
(ˈmɛərɪ)
Forms: 1 Maria, 1–6 Marie, 3 Orm. Marȝe, 5–7 Marye, 5– Mary.
[OE. Maria, Marie, a. L. Marī̆a, a. Gr. Μαρία, Μαριάµ, a. Heb. Miryām, Miriam (the name of the sister of Moses, Exod. xv.).]
A female Christian name.
1. a. The mother of Jesus Christ, commonly called the (Blessed) Virgin Mary, or Saint Mary.
herb Mary: see herb n. 7 b.
| c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Matt. i. 16 Iacob ᵹestrynde ioseph marian wer. [Lindisf. maries, Rushw. maria, Hatton marie.] a 1175 Cott. Hom. 237 Acenned of þam unwemmede mede sante Marie. c 1200 Ormin 2335 Þe laffdiȝ Sannte Marȝe. c 1394 P. Pl. Crede 48 Þei [the Carmelites] makeþ hem Maries men..And lieþ on our Ladie many a longe tale. c 1460 J. Russell Bk. Nurture 691 Maydon mary þat holy virgyne. 1850 Rossetti Blessed Damozel ii, A white rose of Mary's gift For service meetly worn. |
b. In asseverations (
cf. marry int.).
| c 1350 Will. Palerne 838 Be Marie in heuene. Ibid. 955 For Marie loue of heuene. c 1410 Sir Cleges 259 Be God and Seint Mari. 1423 Jas. I Kingis Q. xvii, Help, Calyope, and wynd, in Marye name! 1530 Proper Dyaloge in Roy Rede me (Arb.) 149 By seynt mary syr that is a starcke lye. 1542 Udall Erasm. Apoph. 147 By saint Marie, I begynne to doubte whether [etc.]. 1613 Shakes. Hen. VIII, v. ii. 33 By Holy Mary (Butts) there's knauery. a 1650 Sir Lambewell 500 in Furniv. Percy Folio I. 160 He bad his barons giue iudgment, ‘or I will my-selfe, by mary gent’. |
c. Combinations and phrases:
Mary-ale, a merry-making held on a festival of the Virgin Mary;
Mary Ann Taxi-drivers' slang, a taximeter;
Mary-bud (
obs. exc. in echoes of
Shakes.), the bud of a marigold;
† Saint Mary day, one of the festivals of the Virgin Mary (
cf. Lady-day);
† Saint Mary garlic, some unidentified plant;
Mary-lily, the white or Madonna lily;
† Saint Mary maythe (see
maythe);
† Saint Mary priest, a chaplain employed to say mass in honour of the Virgin Mary;
Mary Queen of Scots cap, a Mary Stuart cap (
Mary Stuart);
† (Saint) Mary's bath [
tr. L.
balneum Mariæ], see
bath n.1 14;
(Saint) Mary's flower, (
a) the Rose of Jericho,
Anastatica hierochuntina; (
b) the Western Australian genus
Marianthus (
Treas. Bot. 1866);
Mary-sole, local name for the whiff,
Rhombus megastoma, or the smear-dab,
Pleuronectes microcephalus;
† Mary's seal, Black Bryony,
lady's seal 2;
† Saint Mary's seed,
Sonchus oleraceus;
Saint Mary thistle = lady's thistle,
Carduus Marianus.
| 1857 *Mary-ale [see ale A. 3]. |
| 1939 H. Hodge Cab, Sir? 218 It [sc. the taximeter] has other names... ‘*Mary Ann’. |
| 1611 Shakes. Cymb. ii. iii. 25 And winking *Mary-buds begin to ope their Golden eyes. |
| c 1310 MS. Ashmol. 43 in S. Eng. Leg. p. xiv, 25 *St. Marie dai in leynte. c 1450 ME. Med. Bk. (Heinrich) 232 Tak talow of an hert, such as he pysseþ by twene two seynt mary dayes. |
| 1623 Markham Eng. Housew. i. i. (ed. 2), Take the stalke of Saint *Mary Garlycke, and burne it. |
| 1893 Westm. Gaz. 24 Feb. 5/1 The white flower of the Italian painters is the *Mary-Lily. |
| 1446 Bury Wills (Camden) 231 Capellano vulgariter nuncupato *seyntmaripriest. |
| 1813 M. Edgeworth Let. 1 May (1971) 44, I may venture to praise Angelica..with a lace *Mary Queen of Scots cap. 1966 J. S. Cox Illustr. Dict. Hairdressing 96 Mary Queen of Scots cap. |
| 1600 Surflet Country Farm i. xii. 76 For them that are more dainty and delicate, you shall distill the said snailes in *Maries bath [orig. au bain de Marie]. |
| 1839 Penny Cycl. XIII. 105 Rose of Jericho..The Jews call it Kaf Maryam, or St. *Mary's Flower. 1822 *Mary sole [see lantern-fish s.v. lantern n. 9]. 1836 Yarrell Brit. Fishes II. 221 Lemon Dab. Smooth Dab... Mary-sole, Devonshire. |
| 1600 Surflet Country Farm ii. ii. 204 Iesamin, *Maries seale [orig. seau nostre dame], muske roses. |
| 1597 Gerarde Herbal App., S. *Maries seede is Southistle seede. |
| 1579 Langham Gard. Health (1633) 635 Make broth of S. *Mary Thistle. |
d. In various names, as
Mary Ann,
Mary Warner, etc., used as slang substitutes for
marijuana.
Cf. also
Mary Jane 2.
| 1925 Writer's Monthly June 487/1 Laughing-weed, Mary Ann—A Mexican ‘dope’ rag-weed. 1935 A. J. Pollock Underworld Speaks 75/2 Mary and Johnny, marihuana. 1938 New Yorker 12 Mar. 36/2 Marijuana cigarettes..are sticks, reefers, Mary Anns. 1938 Detective Fiction Weekly 8 Jan. 47/2 He found plenty of marijuana. As always it came in cigarettes, called ‘reefers’, ‘muggles’,..or sometimes, playfully, ‘Mary Warners’. 1949 Partridge Dict. Underworld 433 Mary Ann, a Mexican drug—the ‘loco weed’... An alteration of Mary Jane, the English of the folk-lore interpretation of marijuana... Mary Warner, a marijuana cigarette. 1971 E. E. Landy Underground Dict. 129 Mary Ann,..marijuana...Mary Warner,..marijuana. |
2. Austral. slang. A native woman. Also
white Mary, in Pidgin, a white woman.
| 1817 J. L. Nicholas Narr. Voyage to N.Z. I. vii. 201 The sister of one of our New Zealand sailors, a damsel who dispensed unlimited favours among our people, to whom she was well known by the name of Mary. 1882 A. J. Boyd Old Colonials 234 They [sc. the ‘Australian black-fellows’] also fail to comprehend how it is that a Chinaman who is ‘baal white fellow’ can get a white woman for a wife. They say, ‘Chinaman got 'im white Mary; black fellow get 'im white Mary.’ 1884 Pall Mall G. 16 Aug. 2/1 The vessels generally average a little over 100 tons, 130 to 150 ‘boys’ and Marys may be regarded as an average full cargo. 1898 M. Davitt Life & Progr. Australasia l. 273 If a Kanaka has a ‘Mary’ on ‘enlisting’ the woman comes too and works like a man. 1931 V. Palmer Separate Lives 68 White mary no walk about all day. She belonga one boss, sit down longa one house. 1956 T. Ronan Moleskin Midas v. 326 Harness up the buggy and take this Mary back to town. 1962 Coast to Coast 1961–2 54 Some of the older marys did not remove frayed or dirty skirts. They put new ones on over the old. |
† 3. Mary royal (
Sc.): see
quot. Obs.| 1565 Reg. Privy Council Scot. I. 413 That thair be cunyeit ane penny of silver callit the Marie ryall. |
4. The sister of Martha and Lazarus in Bethany; hence used with allusion to Luke x. 39, 42, for a contemplative or intellectual person,
opp. Martha (see
Martha a).
| a 1225 [see Martha a]. 1907 Kipling Twenty Poems (1918) 1 The Sons of Mary seldom bother, for they have inherited that good part; But the Sons of Martha favour their Mother of the careful soul and the troubled heart. 1929 C. Mackenzie Gallipoli Memories xv. 272 She was the Mary of the household, sitting back and entertaining the guest with tales of a cosmopolitan life. 1938, etc. [see Martha a]. |
5. Little Mary: see
little a. 13.
______________________________
Add:
[1.] [c.] Mary blue [from the blue colour commonly used for the Virgin Mary's cloak in devotional images], a light or medium blue colour.
| 1943 J. Lees-Milne Diary 9 May in Ancestral Voices (1975) 193 Little girls in white veils, little boys with Mary blue sashes. 1962 S. Plath Heavy Women in Poetry (Chicago) Mar. 350 They step among the archetypes. Dusk hoods them in Mary-blue. 1980 Church Times 29 Mar. 14/2 The..choir's new cassocks..are ‘Mary’ blue. |
6. slang.
a. Sometimes more fully as
Mary Ann. An effeminate man; a male homosexual;
= nancy n.2 derog.| 1880 Pearl Oct. 159 Girl to Ponce—Go along, you, bloody Mary Ann, and tighten your arsehole with alum. 1881 (title) The sins of the Cities of the Plain; or, The recollections of a Mary-Ann. 1936 ‘G. Orwell’ Diary 5 Mar. in Coll. Ess. (1968) I. 195 The woman continues to do all the housework... The man would lose his manhood if, merely because he was out of work, he became a ‘Mary Ann’. 1972 B. Rodgers Queens' Vernacular 131 Don't push the panic button—it's just another mary safariing through David's Darkest Baths. 1974 P. Wright Lang. Brit. Industry v. 51 A Mary-Ann is one who helps his wife unduly with housework, shopping and children. 1981 Verbatim Autumn 6/2 We refer here only to first names that have acquired meanings of their own or that..have acquired special connotations... Mary,..3. male homosexual. 1988 A. Hollinghurst Swimming Pool Library ii. 41 Falling to bits, of course, ga-ga as often as not, and a coachload of absolute Mary-Anns, I won't deny it. |
b. Used
joc. among (chiefly
U.S.) male homosexuals as a form of address, and also as an
int. expressing (mock) amazement.
| 1941 G. Legman in G. W. Henry Sex Variants II. 1171 Note also that male homosexuals will call most anyone Bessie or Mary, e.g. ‘Oh, Bessie, you're a camp!’ 1968 M. Crowley Boys in Band ii. 141 Oh, Mary, it takes a fairy to make something pretty. 1973 Amer. Speech 1970 XLV. 52 Mary! I really read that girl's beads! 1985 W. Dynes Homolexis 150 In America in the 1950s,..Mary was often used in the vocative to address any fellow homosexual (‘Well, Mary...’). 1991 ff Mag. Spring 28/2 What about every lisping mincing queen doused in Paco Rabane who's called you ‘Mary’? |