litchi
(ˈliːtʃiː)
Forms: 6 lechia, -ya, 7 lichea, 8 letchee, 8–9 lichee, 9 lé ché, leecha, leeche, leechee, li-chee, lichi, li-chi, lychee, ? lychus, 8– litchi.
[Chinese li-chi. First used as a generic name in P. Sonnerat Voyage aux Indes Orientales (1782) III. 255.]
The fruit of an evergreen tree, Litchi chinensis, of the family Sapindaceæ, native to southern China but widely cultivated in tropical countries elsewhere; the fruit is a large berry with a rough, brown skin and sweet, white flesh, which is eaten fresh or preserved.
| 1588 Parke tr. Mendoza's Hist. China iii. 6 They haue a kinde of plummes that they doo call Lechias. 1697 W. Dampier Voy. (1729) II. i. 24 The Lichea..is as big as a small Pear, somewhat long shaped, of a reddish Colour. 1727 A. Hamilton New Acc. E. Indies II. xlvi. 156 Delicious Fruits, such as..Rambostans, Letchees, and Dureans. 1775 Ann. Reg. ii. 33 Among those plants are the lichees, a very fine fruit of China of several sorts. 1822 Heber Journ. Upper Prov. India (1844) I. iv. 60 Of the fruits which this season offers, the finest are leeches and mangoes. 1841 Macaulay W. Hastings (near end), He tried also to naturalize in Worcestershire the delicious leechee. 1878 P. Robinson In My Indian Garden 49 The lichi hiding under a shell of ruddy brown its globes of translucent and delicately fragrant flesh. 1887 Standard 16 Sept. 5/3 The litchi and the longan. 1908 Daily Chron. 12 Nov. 3/4 Lychees, pine-apples, pears, cranberries, dates, figs, medlars and mangos swell the number of fruits. 1933 Punch 9 Aug. 142/2 We never dreamed that it [sc. tinned fruit] would appear..in such dazzling variety..from loquats to li-chees. 1938 Nature 14 May 866/2 The litchi has arrived in much larger quantities lately and been much appreciated. 1953 R. Campbell Mamba's Precipice 137 Monkeys lived on the beautiful lychees and loquats. 1965 Listener 1 July 23/2 You'd never know, looking at me, I had..eaten lychees in a town called Reading. 1969 Oxf. Bk. Food Plants 104/1 Litchis are most usually eaten fresh, but are also sometimes canned for export or preserved in syrup. 1972 A. F. Simmons Growing Unusual Fruit 175 The litchee can..be grown in Britain in a large green-house. |
| attrib. 1876 Harley Mat. Med. (ed. 6) 707 The delicious ‘litchi-nuts’. 1879 Miss Maive Stokes Indian Fairy Tales xv. 91 Here are a hundred and sixty lichi fruits for you. |