mustard seed
Forms: see mustard n. and seed n. Also 7 muster seed.
1. The seed of mustard. Also attrib. and fig.
The ‘mustard-seed’ (κόκκος σινάπεως) of the N.T., spoken of as producing a ‘tree’ (Matt. xiii. 31), is prob. the seed of the black mustard (Brassica nigra), which in Palestine grows to a great height. Some commentators have identified it with the tree Salvadora persica, which does not suit the description of it as a ‘herb’.
| 1390–1 Earl Derby's Exp. (Camden) 22 Pro j bz. de mustardseed iij s. 14.. Stockh. Med. MS. ii. 467 in Anglia XVIII. 318 A greyn of mustard-seed [in weight]. 1660 Act 12 Chas. II, c. 4 (Rates) Muster seed the c li...x s. 1763 Mills Syst. Pract. Husb. IV. 129 Another sort..produces the seeds which are commonly sold under the appellation of Durham mustard-seed. 1847 W. Darlington Amer. Weeds (1860) 47 The skin of the White Mustard seeds contains a large amount of mucilaginous matter. 1884 Encycl. Brit. XVII. 113/1 The mustard-seed imported from the East Indies is also largely composed of Brassica juncea. 1887 C. A. Moloney Forestry W. Afr. 274 Brassica juncea... Herb cultivated abundantly in India for the seeds, which yield mustard-seed oil. 1926 C. Van Vechten Nigger Heaven 286 Mustard⁓seed: see high yellow (= mulatto). 1952 Dylan Thomas Coll. Poems 170 In the mustardseed sun. |
| fig. 1700 Congreve Way of World iv. ix, Thou dost bite, my dear Mustard-seed. |
† 2. The plant mustard
= mustard n. 2. Also with defining word.
Cf. mustard n. 2 b.
Obs.| 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §20 Kedlokes hath a leafe lyke rapes,..and groweth in al maner corne, and hath small coddes, and groweth lyke mustard sede. 1578 Lyte Dodoens v. lv. 618 Sinapi syluestre. Wilde Mustarde seede. Ibid. 619 The first kind is called..in English, White Senuie, & white Mustarde sede. a 1614 Donne βιαθανατος 184 As much as a graine of Musterseed is enough to remove mountaines. 1626 Bacon Sylva §582 Some Herbs are but Annuall,..As Borrage,..Tobacco, Mustard-Seed, and all kindes of Corne. 1681 Grew Musæum ii. iii. iii. 235 The lesser Champaine Treacle Mustard-Seed. Thlaspios Campestris. |
3. U.S. A very fine shot used for shooting birds with the least injury to the plumage.
| 1809 T. G. Fessenden Pills Poetical 8 Her single good gun loaded with mustard seed shot. 1844 Knickerbocker XXIII. 440 None of the fine mustard-seed or robin, but the heavy duck-shot. 1884 Coues Key N. Amer. Birds (ed. 2) 4 Use ‘mustard-seed’, or ‘dust-shot’, as it is variously called... A small bird..may be riddled with mustard-seed and yet be preservable. |