▪ I. lignum1
(ˈlɪgnəm)
[L. lignum wood.]
‖ 1. Bot. The wood of exogenous plants, comprising both alburnum and duramen.
| 1826 Good Bk. Nat. I. 190 The whole of the liber of one year..becoming the alburnum of the next, and the alburnum becoming the lignum. 1866 in Treas. Bot. |
‖ 2. Occurring, with qualification, in the names of various trees and woods: lignum aloes († occas. aloe) = lignaloes; † lignum aquilæ, aloes-wood; † lignum rhodium, candle-wood, Amyris balsamifera; † lignum sanctum, a name for lignum vitæ.
| c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xxxiii. 150 Þe tree þat es called lignum aloes. 1525 tr. Jerome of Brunswick's Surg. T iij a/2 Take lignum aloes .ij. ounces. 1529 Doctors' Commons Wills (Camden) 14 My beades of lignum alweys dressed with goulde. 1553 Lignum Sanctum [see guaiacum 1]. 1555 Eden Decades 239 Lignum aloe, blacke, heauy and fine. 1558, 1604 [see guaiac]. 1600 J. Pory tr. Leo's Africa Introd. 41 Here groweth the right Lignum Aquilæ, which is of so excellent vertue in phisick. 1669 Dryden Tyrannic Love iv. i. Wks. 1883 III. 421 The chalks and chips of lignum aloes. 1693 Lignum Rhodium [see lightwood2]. 1741 Compl. Fam.-Piece i. i. 56 The Powder of Lignum Aloes. |
3. Short for lignum vitæ.
| 1899 Sheffield manufacturer's list, Braces, Beech and Lignum Head. |
▪ II. lignum2 Austral.
(ˈlɪgnəm)
[Corruption of mod.L. polygonum.]
‘A bushman's contraction for any species of the wiry plants called polygonum’ (Morris Austral Eng.).
| 1880 L. A. Meredith Tasmanian Friends & Foes xxviii. 180 The poor emus had got down into the creek amongst the lignum bushes for a little shade. 1896 H. Lawson When World was Wide 135 (Morris) By mulga scrub and lignum plain. 1903 ‘T. Collins’ Such is Life 79 When a certain class of bushman says ‘mallee’, he means any sort of scrub except lignum. 1933 Bulletin (Sydney) 13 Dec. 29/4 Beneath the surface is a mass of lignum roots. 1941 I. L. Idriess Great Boomerang xiii. 92 Carpeted with yellowish-green lignum—huge bunches of cane-like shrubs like man-high beehives. |