nutmeg
(ˈnʌtmɛg)
Forms: α. 4 notemugge (5 not-), 4–5 -mug(e (4 notte-), 5 noot-, notmoge; 4–5 nutemug(e, 5 nutmuge, -muke, 9 dial. -mug, Sc. netmug. β. 5 not(e)mygge, notmyg; 6 nutmygge, -migge (nutte-), -mig. γ. 6 not(e)meg; nutte-, nutmegge, nutmege, 6– nutmeg, 9 Sc. nitmeg.
[A partial translation of OF. or AF. *nois mugue or muge (f. nois nut, and mugue, muge musk), an unrecorded variant of the common OF. nois mug(u)ede, mug(u)ete, muguette, musguette, also muscade, muscate (mod.F. noix muscade), = Prov. notz muscada, Sp. nuez moscada, It. noce moscada, med.L. nux muscāta, f. late L. muscus musk. The common Romanic type is directly represented by MDu. note muscate (Du. muskaatnoot), MHG. muscâtnu{zced} (G. -nuss), Sw. muskotnöt, Da. muskatnöd.]
1. a. A hard aromatic seed, of spheroidal form and about an inch in length, obtained from the fruit of an evergreen tree (Myristica fragrans or officinalis) indigenous to the Molucca and other East Indian islands, and largely used as a spice and in medicine.
Inferior kinds are also obtained from other species of Myristicaceæ in various parts of the world; and with distinguishing epithets, as American, Brazilian, Peruvian, the name is occasionally applied to the produce of trees belonging to other genera.
| α 13.. K. Alis. 6792 Notemugge, and the sedewale, On heom smullith. c 1386 Chaucer Sir Thopas 52 The licorys and the cetewale, And many a clow gilofre, And notemuge to put in ale. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xxi. 94 Clowes, canell, nutemuges, macez... Þe macez er þe huskes of þe nutemug. c 1440 Anc. Cookery in Househ. Ordin. (1790) 473 Take clowes, maces, spikenarde, nutmukes. 1483 Cath. Angl. 257/2 A Nut muge, nux muscata. 1877 Holderness Gloss., Nutmug, a nutmeg. |
| β ? a 1366 Chaucer Rom. Rose 1361 Trees there were gret foisoun, That baren notes in her sesoun, Such as men notemygges calle. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 359/2 Notemygge, nux muscata. 1481 Caxton Myrr. ii. x. 90 Other trees there growe..that bere notemygges. 1541 Elyot Cast. Helthe 27 b, Nutmigges with their swete odour comforte and dissolue. 1544 T. Phaer Regim. Lyfe (1553) B viij b, Ye must vse euery daye to eate Nuttemigges. 1570 Levins Manip. 119 A Nutmig, nux myristica. |
| γ c 1515 Test Ebor. (Surtees) V. 68 For notmegys jd. 1542 Boorde Dyetary xxii. (1870) 287 Nutmeges be good for them the whiche haue colde in theyr hed. 1578 Lyte Dodoens 221 The rootes are like a couple of Nutmegges. 1620 Venner Via Recta ii. 44 Take..of Nutmegs and Cynamon of each halfe an ounce. 1688 Holme Armoury ii. 77/2 The Nutmeg hath the middle broad, the ends sharp and bending like a waved leaf. 1731–8 Swift Pol. Conversat. 97 If you carry a Nutmeg in your Pocket, you'll certainly be marry'd to an old Man. 1768 Med. Observ. & Inq. (ed. 2) IV. 3 The bigness of a nutmeg of a digestive..was mixed with the former poultice. 1849 Balfour Man. Bot. §996 It is said that a single tree will yield on an average about six pounds of nutmegs. 1870 Yeats Nat. Hist. Comm. 144 The mace and the nutmeg are both valuable spices. |
b. wooden nutmeg, anything false or fraudulent; a fraud, cheat, deception.
U.S. The story to which the phrase alludes is related by Haliburton (‘Sam Slick’) in the
Clockmaker (1836)
Ser. i. viii. See also
Nutmeg State in 5 below.
| 1830 Galt Lawrie T. ii. i, ‘I reckon, Squire Lawrie,’ said he [a Vermont farmer], ‘is a puffing of a parley voo, but I sells no wooden nutmegs’. 1871 Schele de Vere Americanisms 620 In the press and Congress wooden nutmegs have to answer for forged telegrams, political tricks, and falsified election-returns. |
2. a. nutmeg-tree, the tree (see above) which produces the nutmeg.
| 1594 Blundevil Exerc. v. xi. (1636) 554 The Nutmegge tree groweth in the Ile of Bada, and differeth not much from the Peach tree. 1681 Grew Musæum iv. §iii. 376 The Nutmeg-Tree: Together with a Branch of the same after the life. 1712 tr. Pomet's Hist. Drugs I. 127 These Isles are so stock'd with Nutmeg-Trees, that it is almost incredible. 1779 Forrest Voy. N. Guinea 106 Went again to Long Island, in quest of the nutmeg tree. 1861 Bentley Man. Bot. 633 The Nutmeg tree bears pear-shaped fruits, commonly about the size of an ordinary peach. |
b. nutmeg-grater (see
grater1 1).
| 1695 Congreve Love for L. ii. iii, About a little nutmeg⁓grater, which she had forgot in the caudlecup. 1705 Lond. Gaz. No. 4154/4 Stolen.., a Nutmeg-Grater. 1806–7 J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life ix. lvii, Just as if you were swallowing a nutmeg-grater three and a half yards long. 1847 Nat. Cycl. II. 882 Plates of iron perforated..so as to resemble a nutmeg-grater. |
| Comb. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 664 Conical projections, which give almost a nutmeg-grater-like sensation to the hand when passed over it. |
3. Employed as a distinguishing name for varieties of apples, pears, peaches, etc.
| 1664 Evelyn Kal. Hort. July 70 Fruits in Prime,..Peaches, Nutmeg, Isabella, Persian. Ibid. Aug. 72 Plums,..White Nutmeg, late Pear-plum. 1731 Miller Gard. Dict. s.v. Persica, The White Nutmeg..is the first ripe Peach. Ibid., The Red Nutmeg is..somewhat larger than the white. 1766 Compl. Farmer s.v. Peach-tree 5 Y 1/1 The white nutmeg peach, this is ripe in July. 2. The red nutmeg, this ripens about the beginning of August. 1822 J. Woods 2 Yrs. Res. Eng. Prairie Illinois 307 There are many sorts of sweet melons... I have only noticed musk, of a large size; and nutmeg, a smaller one. 1860 Hogg Fruit Man. 5 Cockle Pippin (Nutmeg Pippin). Ibid. 168 Bezi de Caissoy..(Nutmeg;..Winter Poplin). |
4. a. Used to denote colour or appearance.
| c 1610 Middleton, etc. Widow ii. i, He in the nutmeg⁓colour'd band. 1687 Lond. Gaz. No. 2218/4 A new fashion⁓able Suit near a Nutmeg colour. 1689 Ibid. No. 2422/4 Stolen.., a well shaped Nutmeg grey Stone Nag. 1745 Daily Advertiser 28 Sept. 4/1 Two Mares, one a Roan or Nutmeg colour'd Mare. 1865 Morn. Star 22 Feb., Liver very large and of nutmeg appearance. 1876 J. S. Bristowe Th. & Pract. Med. (1878) 797 The liver may consequently present something of the nutmeg character. |
b. nutmeg liver, a diseased condition of the liver, also called
red atrophy. (
Cf. nutmeggy.)
| 1876 J. S. Bristowe Th. & Pract. Med. (1878) 742 The simple induration and congestion which constitute the ‘nutmeg liver’ may have the same effect. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. IV. 121 Sometimes the liver was nutmeg. |
5. Misc. combs., as
nutmeg boletus,
nutmeg butter,
nutmeg oil,
nutmeg plantation,
nutmeg rock,
nutmeg trade,
nutmeg tribe;
nutmeg-apple, the fruit of the nutmeg-tree, containing the mace and nutmeg;
nutmeg-bird,
-cowrie,
-finch,
-flower,
-pigeon,
State,
-wood (see
quots.);
nutmeg hickory, a species of hickory,
Carya myristicæformis, bearing a fruit resembling a nutmeg and found in southern North America.
| 1871 Kingsley At Last v, Here and there a *nutmeg⁓apple has split, and shows within the delicate crimson caul of mace. |
| 1888 Newton in Encycl. Brit. XXIV. 463 *Nutmeg-birds. 1894 ― Dict. Birds 648 Nutmeg bird, the dealers' name in common use for Munia punctulata, but apparently of somewhat recent origin. 1899 A. H. Evans Birds 577 M[unia] punctulata, the Cowry- or Nutmeg-bird, is brown with white streaks above and spots below. |
| 1819 Pantologia VIII. s.v. Myristica, The soil on which any large quantity of this is deposited shoots forth very speedily a *nutmeg-boletus, or mushroom. |
| 1857 Miller Elem. Chem., Org. (1862) 260 Palm oil, *nutmeg butter, and cocoa⁓nut oil, each contain a different solid fatty acid. 1884 Encycl. Brit. XVII. 666/2 Nutmeg butter is a solid fatty substance of a reddish-brown colour, obtained by grinding the refuse nutmegs to a fine powder. |
| 1815 Burrow Conchol. 198 Cypræa Arabica, *Nutmeg Cowry. |
| 1881 Proc. Zool. Soc. 1002 *Nutmeg-Finch (Munia undulata). |
| 1846–50 A. Wood Class-bk. Bot. 149 N[igella] Sativa, *Nutmeg Flower.., From Egypt. |
| 1810 F. A. Michaux Hist. Arbres Forestiers de l'Amérique Septentrionale I. 21 *Nutmeg hickory nut.., nom donné par moi. 1832 D. J. Browne Sylva Amer. 177 This species..bears the name of Nutmeg Hickory from the resemblance of its fruits to that of the nutmeg. 1901 C. T. Mohr Plant Life Alabama 101 The nutmeg hickory, when full grown, resembles the shagbark hickory in its pale, shreddy bark. 1951 Dict. Gardening (R. Hort. Soc.) I. 404/2 Nutmeg Hickory. Tree 80 to 100 ft., shoots covered with yellowish, glossy scales... Nut ovoid, sweet, its shell hard and furrowed like a nutmeg. |
| 1849 tr. Mulder's Chem. Veg. & Anim. Phys. 818 The greater number of fats..may there⁓fore in this respect be compared with the stearopt of *nut⁓meg oil, C16 H16 O5. 1891 Thorpe Dict. Appl. Chem. II. 712 Nutmeg-oil (syn. Oil of Mace)..is extracted by bruising the fruit and submitting the paste to the action of steam. |
| 1895 R. Lydekker Royal Nat. Hist. IV. 368 The *Nutmeg-pigeon (Carpophaga ænea) common in the Indo-Burmese countries, Ceylon, and the Andamans. This bird..lives on fruit, especially the wild nutmeg. Ibid. 369 The white nutmeg pigeon..is a handsome species found in the Philippine Islands [etc.]. |
| 1800 Asiat. Ann. Reg. 217/2 The general idleness, and consequent neglect of the *nut⁓meg plantations. |
| 1864 Tennyson Voyage 40 Where those long swells of breaker sweep The *nutmeg rocks and isles of clove. |
| 1859 Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 2) 298 *Nutmeg State, a nickname given to the State of Connecticut, in allusion to the story that wooden nutmegs are there manufactured for exportation. |
| 1819 Pantologia VIII. s.v. Myristica, The chief *nutmeg trade lies at Ceylon. |
| 1830 Lindley Introd. Bot. 23 Myristiceæ, the *Nutmeg Tribe. |
| 1866 Treas. Bot., *Nutmeg-wood, the wood of the Palmyra palm, Borassus flabelliformis. |