ficus Path.
(ˈfaɪkəs)
[a. L. fīcus fig, fig-tree.]
1. See quots.
| c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. (MS. A) 287 Ficus is a maner wexynge þat arisiþ upon a mannes ȝerde tofore. 1494 Fabyan Chron. clxxi. 165 At Goddes ordynaunce he had that euyll called fycus. 1860 Mayne Expos. Lex., Ficus, Pathol. Surg., name given to a fleshy substance or kind of Condyloma resembling a fig. |
2. Bot. [Adopted by Linnæus in his Species Plantarum (1753) II. 1059 as the name of a genus.] A member of a large genus of trees and shrubs so named, belonging to the family Moraceæ and widely distributed in warm regions; it includes the fig, Ficus carica, and the rubber plant, F. elastica, a common house-plant.
| [1597 J. Gerard Herball cxxvii. 1328 The Fig tree is called..in Latine Ficus. 1640 J. Parkinson Theat. Bot. lxviii. 1494 The tree is called..in Latin Ficus both tree and fruite. 1728 R. Bradley Bot. Dict. I., Figg-tree, is Ficus.] 1864 J. A. Grant Walk across Africa v. 60 The tree, a ficus, whose bark affords the Waganda their clothing. 1959 Listener 17 Dec. 1094/3 Ficus or rubber plants can be acclimatised to light or shade. 1969 T. H. Everett Living Trees of World 135/2 Several cultivated types of this Ficus are grown. |