fungus, n.
(ˈfʌŋgəs)
Pl. fungi (ˈfʌndʒaɪ), funguses. Also 7 fungous.
[a. L. fungus, commonly believed to be cognate with or ad. Gr. σϕόγγος, σπόγγος sponge; in sense 2 prob. through OF. fungus (F. fongus).]
1. a. A mushroom, toadstool, or one of the allied plants, including the various forms of mould. In Bot., a cryptogamous plant, characterized by the absence of chlorophyll, and deriving its sustenance from dead or living organic matter. Also collect. in sing.
| 1527 Andrew Brunswyke's Distyll. Waters E vj b, Water of fungus..The beste parte and tyme be the whyte tode stoles or muscheroms whan they be full rype. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 132 Those excrescenses in manner of Mushromes, which be named Fungi. 1665 Hooke Microgr. 115 Cork seems to be by..the pores, a kind of Fungus or Mushrome. 1694 Acc. Sev. Late Voy. ii. (1711) 152 Like unto the Fungus that grows on Elder, which we call Jews-ears. 1804 Med. Jrnl. XII. 385 Case of Poison from a Vegetable Fungus. 1838 T. Thomson Chem. Org. Bodies 947 This black matter is a species of small fungus, which draws its nourishment from the wheat. 1847 Badham Escul. Funguses p. xiii, No country is perhaps richer in esculent Funguses than our own. 1882 Vines Sachs' Bot. 243, I shall..treat separately the forms which contain chlorophyll (so-called Algæ) from those destitute of chlorophyll (so-called Fungi). |
b. transf. and
fig. Often used
fig. for something of rapid growth.
| 1750 Warburton Julian Introd. (1751) 45 Exsuding from her [the Church's] sickly Trunk a number of deform'd Fungus's. 1757 Foote Author ii. Wks. 1799 I. 156 The offspring of a dunghill! born in a cellar..and living in a garret; a fungus, a mushroom. 1791 Paine Rights of Man (ed. 4) 107 They began to consider aristocracy as a kind of fungus growing out of the corruption of society. 1862 Fraser's Mag. Nov. 631 Nor, when criticising this architectural fungus [Exhibition Building], must its cost be forgotten. 187. Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. lxxviii. 36 A mere unsubstantial fungus of unabiding excitement. 1881 G. W. Cable Mme. Delphine i. 2 That significant fungus, the Chinaman. |
c. A beard. Also
face-fungus s.v. face n. 27.
slang.| 1925 Wodehouse Sam the Sudden xiii. 89 Where did you get the fungus? 1936 [see beaver3]. 1937 ‘R. Crompton’ William—the Showman x. 240 ‘Is it to be me or that ass with the fungus on his cheeks?’ demanded Richard belligerently. 1959 H. Hobson Mission House Murder ii. 14 In addition to the chin-fungus he'd put on a little weight. |
2. a. Path. A spongy morbid growth or excrescence, such as exuberant granulation in a wound.
| 1674–7 Molins Anat. Obs. (1896) 17 An old Man having a Contusion upon his Skin there threw out such Fungous that all the Escharotticks signified nothing. 1721 Bailey, Fungus [in Surgery], soft spungy, Flesh which grows upon Wounds. 1748 Hartley Observ. Man i. ii. 152 Bitters and Acids applied to Funguses of the Brain. 1804 Abernethy Surg. Obs. 91 It is no uncommon circumstance to meet with wens, that have burst spontaneously, and have thrown out a fungus. 1844 Dufton Deafness 41 Sometimes small vegetations can be observed on its surface, and the commencing existence of polypus or fungus. |
| fig. 1711 Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) I. 248 The comick genius was apply'd as a kind of caustick, to those exuberances and fungus's of the swoln dialect, and magnificent manner of speech. |
b. A skin disease in fish.
| 1892 Daily News 12 Jan. 5/4 Though the disease of the skin of fish known as ‘fungus’ is common..they never had a better supply of salmon in the river than at present. |
† 3. An excrescence of lamp-black or charred fibre on the wick of a candle or lamp.
lit. and
fig. (So in Latin.)
Obs.| 1775 Fletcher Last Check §18 Wks. 1795 VI. 243 Is a spiritual lamp trimmed when its flame is darkened by the black fungus of indwelling sin? 1813 T. Forster Atmosph. Phænom. (1815) 150 The excrescence of fungi about the wicks of lamps and candles; the flaring and snapping of the flame. |
4. The vegetable growth employed as tinder.
| [1664 Evelyn Sylva (1679) 27 Nor may we here omit to mention the..fungus's to make Tinder.] 1831 Brewster Nat. Magic xiii. (1833) 320 The heat of the wire is always sufficient to kindle a piece of German fungus. |
5. attrib. and
Comb., as
fungus disease (see 2 b above),
fungus-eater,
fungus-flora,
fungus growth,
fungus-hunt,
fungus-hunter,
fungus production,
fungus-ring,
fungus tree;
fungus-covered,
fungus-eating,
fungus-like,
fungus-plagued,
fungus-proof adjs.;
fungus-garden (see
quot.);
fungus-gnat,
-midge Ent., a fly of the dipterous family Mycetophilidæ.
| 1880 Burton Q. Anne III. xvii. 169 *Fungus-covered cabins. |
| 1888 Pall Mall G. 3 Sept. 9/1 Fish affected with *fungus disease. |
| 1899 G. H. Carpenter Insects 304 *Fungus-Eaters... A considerable number of small Beetles together with the grubs of many Flies and Midges find their sustenance in fungi. Ibid. Index 397/1 *Fungus-eating insects. |
| 1892 G. Massee (title) British *fungus-flora. 1924 J. A. Thomson Science Old & New xvi. 88 The *fungus-gardens of the termites are seen at their best in Ceylon, and the characteristic feature is the construction of a maze of chewed wood with labyrinthine passages, on the walls of which the fungi grow. |
| 1884 J. S. Kingsley Stand. Nat. Hist. (1888) II. 407 The family Mycetophilidæ, commonly called *Fungus Gnats. 1955 Sci. Amer. May 104/3 In caves of the Great Smokies in Tennessee and North Carolina, there is a large fly, the fungus gnat (Platyura fultoni), which is luminous in its larval stage. |
| 1899 Burnand in Pall Mall Mag. XVIII. 536 We espied the Professor..evidently enjoying a *fungus-hunt. |
| 1886 P. Robinson Valley of Teetotum Trees 134 A common object of the country in ‘the fall of the year’..is the fungus. And scarcely less familiar, in wooded districts especially, the *fungus-hunter. 1899 G. H. Carpenter Insects 256 The Mycetophilidæ or *Fungus-midges. 1918 W. Beebe Jungle Peace (1919) viii. 178 Light-starved and *fungus-plagued, the shrub and saplings are stunted and weak. |
| 1826 Disraeli Viv. Grey iv. i, The Literature of the present day, a *fungus production which has flourished from the artificial state of our Society. |
| 1887 Darwin in Life & Lett. (1887) III. 348 Raising *fungus-proof varieties of the potato. |
| 1907 Woodruffe-Peacock Pasture & Meadow Anal. 5 The flora of *fungus-rings..should always be most carefully noted the season through. 1963 Field Archæol. (Ordnance Survey) (ed. 4) 7 The fungus rings which suggest barrow circles. |
| 1848 Dickens Dombey xxiii, *Fungus trees grew in corners of the cellars. |
Hence
ˈfungus v. intr., to grow
out rapidly like a fungus;
ˈfungused pa. pple., grown over or covered with fungus.
| 1841 Lytton Nt. & Morn. (1851) 167 From that little boss has fungused out a terrible hump. 1862 Sat. Rev. XIII. 209/1 From a celebrated cellar, cobwebbed and fungused with the dirt and dust of half-a-century of neglect. |