▪ I. martin1
(ˈmɑːtɪn)
Also 5 martoune, 6, 9 marten, 7 martyn.
[Presumably a use of Martin (a. F. Martin, ad. L. Martīnus), a male Christian name common in Western Europe after St. Martin bishop of Tours (4th c.), whose festival is 11th Nov. (Martinmas). The name is applied in Fr. to various birds, as in martin-chasseur, the hen-harrier, martin-pêcheur, the kingfisher; the dim. martinet (see martinet) denotes the house-martin and the swift.
The application of the Christian name to birds has no obvious reason, and may have been purely arbitrary. Many writers of the 17th c. say that the martin is so called because it comes in March and departs about Martinmas.]
1. A well-known bird of the swallow family, Chelidon urbica. It builds a mud-nest on the walls of houses, etc.; hence called house-martin. The sand-martin or bank-martin is Cotileriparia; the purple martin of N. America is Progne subis or purpurea. For Australian use see quot. 1883.
bee-martin, the American king-bird, Tyrannus carolinensis. black martin, screech-martin, local names for the swift, Cypselus apus.
| c 1450 Holland Howlat 213 The Martoune, the Murcoke, the Myresnype in ane, Lichtit, as lerit men, law by that laike. 1589 ? Lyly Pappe w. Hatchet C b, There is small difference between Swallowes and Martins, either in shape or nature. 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Arrexaque, a bird called a marten. 1678 Ray Willughby's Ornithol. 213 The Sand-Martin, or Shore-bird. Ibid. 214 The black Martin or Swift. a 1682 Sir T. Browne Tracts 107 Building in holes of pits, like some martins. 1773 G. White Selborne, To Barrington xvi, The house-martin, or martlet. 1774 Ibid. xx, The sand-martin, or bank-martin, is by much the least of any of the British hirundines. Ibid. xxi, The swift or black-martin. 1808–14 A. Wilson Amer. Ornith. (1831) II. 37 The purple martin, like his half-cousin the king bird, is the terror of crows, hawks, and eagles. 1842 Penny Cycl. XXIII. 363/1 The Common Swift..is the..Screech Martin..and Black Martin of the country-people. 1865 Fairy Martin [see fairy C. 2]. 1883 Newton in Encycl. Brit. XV. 581/2 The ordinary Martin of Australia is the Hirundo or Hylochelidon nigricans of most ornithologists, and another and more beautiful form is the Ariel or Fairy-Martin of the same country, Hirundo or Lagenoplastes ariel. 1887 J. C. Harris Free Joe, etc. (1888) 141 In the upper air a bee-martin was fiercely pursuing a sparrow-hawk. |
† 2. A dupe. Obs. [Perh. a different word.]
| 1591 Greene Discov. Coosnage Wks. (Grosart) X. 37 In High Lawe, The Theefe is called a High lawier... He that is robd the Martin When he yeeldeth, stouping. 1610 Rowlands Martin Mark-all G, I haue heard..a high-way lawyer rob a man in the morning, and hath dined with the martin or honest man so robbed the same day at an Inne. 1621 Fletcher Isl. Princess ii. i, We are all meere Martins. |
3. attrib. and Comb., as martin-haunted adj.; martin-box, -coop U.S., a box or coop used in America for martins to build in; martin bug, a blood-sucking bug, Oeciacus hirundinis, whose principal host is the house-martin; martin-cage, a cage for holding martins; martin-house = martin-box; martin-snipe, a provincial name for the green sandpiper, Totanus ochropus.
| 1828 Farmer's Almanac 1829 (Wendell, Mass.) sig. F3v Whose house is that with white capped chimnies, black sashed windows, and a nice little *marten [sic] box just an epitome of the State House? 1854 B. F. Taylor Jan. & June 60 A martin-box of a cottage scuds round the corner of the Meeting House. 1858 Hawthorne Fr. & It. Note-Bks. II. 47 Its lofty, machicolated and battlemented tower..looking exceedingly like a martin-box, on a pole. 1871 Mrs. Stowe Oldtown Fireside Stories 108 Your questions tumbles over each other thick as martins out o' a martin-box. 1946 J. Stuart Tales Plum Grove Hills 85, I know what Mom is thinking when she looks at the martin boxes. |
| 1923 E. A. Butler Biol. Brit. Hemiptera-Heteroptera 322 By most authors the *martin bug is considered to be generically distinct from the rest of our British Cimicina, and is referred to the genus Oeciacus. 1935 Brit. Birds XXVIII. 278 The martin bug is rarer and resembles the much-disliked bed⁓bug which infests human habitations. 1959 Southwood & Leston Land & Water Bugs Brit. Isles vii. 187 The martin bug is recorded from most English counties south of a line from the Wash to the Bristol Channel. |
| 1844 Knickerbocker XXIII. 442 Like a superannuated old man with a *martin-cage upon his crooked back. |
| 1807 W. Irving Salmag. (1824) 264 Knocking down a mouldering *martin-coop, with his tennis-ball. |
| 1864 Tennyson Aylmer's F. 163 Almost to the *martin-haunted eaves A summer burial deep in hollyhocks. |
| 1826 ‘A. Singleton’ Lett. 74 The tasteful slave makes, perchance a *martin-house, by erecting a high pole having a number of hollow calabashes hung around the top of it. 1835 R. M. Bird Hawks of Hawk-Hollow I. iii. 44 Here's..the identical old Folly, with..the pot in the chimney, and the martin-house on a pole. 1854 B. P. Shillaber Life & Sayings Mrs. Partington 101 He heard Gruff scolding Ike for throwing snowballs at his new Martin-house. 1884 ‘C. E. Craddock’ In Tennessee Mts. 1. 40 There was a lofty martin-house whence the birds whirled fitfully. |
| 1870 H. Stevenson Birds Norfolk II. 224 Provincially, this bird [the Green Sandpiper] is known as the..‘*Martin Snipe’. |
▪ II. † ˈmartin2 Obs.
[The name Martin (see prec.) given to the monkey in Reynard the Fox.]
A kind of monkey. Also martin-ape, martin-monkey.
| 13.. K. Alis. 6464 Visage after martyn apen: Folke heo buth ful eovel y-schapen! 1388 Wyclif Isa. xxxiv. 14 (gloss) Martynapis ben liyk apis, and ben tailid. 1589 ? Lyly Whip for an Ape 7 Who knoweth not, that Apes men Martins call. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 7 The Cepus, or Martine Munkey. The Martin called cepus of the Greeke word, Kepos. a 1697 J. Aubrey Lives (1898) II. 48 Their [the Martins'] crest is an ape; men use to say ‘a Martin ape’. |
b. Comb.: martin-drunk (cf. ape-drunk, lion-drunk, etc., in the same list).
| 1592 Nashe P. Penilesse 24 The sixt [kind of drunkard] is Martin drunke, when a man is drunke and drinkes himselfe sober ere he stirre. |
▪ III. martin4
(ˈmɑːtɪn)
[Perh. called from the surname of inventors or makers.]
1. A grinding-tool consisting of a brass plate with a flat stone facing (Knight Dict. Mech.).
† 2. martin panel.
| 1760 Foote Minor i. Wks. 1799 I. 241 Let the Martin pannels for the vis-a-vis be carried to Long-Acre, and the pye-balls sent to Hall's to be bitted. |
3. martin bit: see quot.
| 1884 Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl., Martin Bit (Manége), a stiff-bar bit, having a spoon-shaped port [etc.]. |
4. (with capital initial) Martin ware, Martinware, a type of brown, salt-glazed, freq. elaborately modelled pottery, made by the Martin brothers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. (See quot. 1897.)
| 1897 F. Litchfield Chaffers's Marks Pott. & Porc. (ed. 8) 870 Martin Ware. The four brothers Martin carry on a small pottery at Southall. The initiator of the business was Robert Wallace Martin... He was joined by his three brothers..to produce the ware which now bears their name... A great point with the Martins is that the decoration of a specimen is never repeated. 1918 E. Clarke Story of My Life xxxi. 411 On the top of the low book-shelves stand a few choice bronzes..and some fine specimens of my favourite Martin-ware. 1922 J. F. Blacker ABC Eng. Salt-Glaze Stoneware xxv. 219 The best period of Martin ware. 1937 Times Lit. Suppl. 25 Sept. 696/3 The four brothers Martin responsible for the production of the nineteenth and early twentieth century pottery known as Martinware. 1957 Mankowitz & Haggar Conc. Encycl. Eng. Pott. & Porc. 142/1 A large collection of Martinware is exhibited at the Public Library and Museum, Southall, Middlesex. 1966 G. A. Godden Illustr. Encycl. Brit. Pott. & Porc. 214 (caption) A selection of Martinware birds with loose heads. 1973 Times 16 Feb. 21/5 A Martinware bird of exceptional size was sold at Sotheby's..for {pstlg}1,250. |
▪ IV. ˈmartin5 dial. (from Yorks. southward: see E.D.D.)
= freemartin. Also martin-calf, martin-heifer.
The sense ‘spayed heifer’, quoted in E.D.D. from Kennett Par. Antiq. (1695) and Peacock Lonsdale Gloss. (1869), if genuine, is now obsolete.
| 1856 P. Thompson Hist. Boston 714 A twin-heifer is called a martin, and is said to be incapable of bearing young. 1903 Rep. Kansas State Board Agric. 1901–2 ii. 211 Pure-bred steer, spayed or martin heifer, two years old and under three. |
▪ V. martin
variant of marten.