heath, n.
(hiːθ)
Forms: 1–3 hæð, 3–4 heþ, 4–6 heth, -e, heeth, 6 heyth, 4– heath.
[OE. hǽð (:—*haiþi-), corresponding, exc. in the formative suffix, with MLG. hêde, MDu. hêde, heide, Du. heide, hei, OHG. heida (only as in sense 2), MHG., G. heide, ON. heiðr, Goth. haiþi fem., gen. haiþjôs field, open untilled land, pasture, open country, from pre-Teut. root *kait-. A cognate has been suggested in L. bū-cētum cow-pasture.]
1. a. Open uncultivated ground; an extensive tract of waste land; a wilderness; now chiefly applied to a bare, more or less flat, tract of land, naturally clothed with low herbage and dwarf shrubs, esp. with the shrubby plants known as heath, heather or ling.
In ME. often contrasted with holt or wood.
| a 1000 Cædmon's Exod. 118 Þy læs him westengryre, har hæð..ferhð ᵹetwæf(de). c 1205 Lay. 12819, I wude i wilderne, inne hæðe & inne uærne. c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 8864 Ffro stede to stede þey fledde to sculk, On heþ & hilles to hyde in hulk. c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 6 Whan Zephirus..Inspired hath in euery holt and heeth The tendre croppes. c 1400 Destr. Troy 1350 The Troiens..Fleddon..Ouer hilles & hethes into holte woddes. 1412–20 Lydg. Chron. Troy i. iii, On holte and hethe the merye somers daye. 1530 Palsgr. 231/1 Hethe a playne, lande. 1535 Coverdale Jer. xii. 12 The distroyers come ouer the heeth euery waye [1611 upon all high places through the wilderness]. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 383 [They] met the King on the Hethe on this side Shene. 1626 Bacon Sylva §834 Some Woods of Orenges, and Heathes of Rose Mary, will Smell a great way into the Sea. 1674 N. Cox Gentl. Recreat. (1677) 46 As for high Downs or Heaths, the best are about Marlborough, Salisbury, Cirencester, and Lincoln. 1784–92 J. Belknap Hist. New Hampsh. in Morse Amer. Geog. (1796) I. 366 A large area, called the plain. It is a dry heath, composed of rocks covered with moss. 1792 A. Young Trav. France (1794) 20 An uninteresting flat, with many heaths of ling. 1815 Duc de Levis Eng. 19th Cent. I. 12 A Common..the English distinguish these uncultivated lands..into heaths and pastures. 1872 E. W. Robertson Hist. Ess. 246 At a comparatively recent period..in many parts of England..the Common of modern days was known as ‘the heath’ or ‘the waste’. |
† b. transf. Part of a garden left more or less in the wild state.
Obs.| 1625 Bacon Ess., Gardens (Arb.) 558 Gardens..to be diuided into..A Greene in the Entrance; A Heath or Desart in the Going forth; And the Garden in the middest. |
2. A name given to plants and shrubs found upon heaths or in open or waste places.
† a. In early times vaguely applied or identified.
Obs.| a 700 Epinal Gloss. 1007 Thymus, haeth. a 800 Erfurt Gloss. 269 Calomacus, haeth. Ibid. 2012 Thymus, haedth. a 1387 Sinon. Barthol. (Anecd. Oxon.) 30 Mirix, Mirica, idem, bruer heath, sive genesta. Ibid. 33 Paliurus, heth. |
b. The ordinary name for undershrubs of the Linnæan genus
Erīca, of which the common native species are
E. (now
Calluna)
vulgaris,
common heath, heather, or ling,
E. cinerea fine-leaved heath (the ‘common heath’ of some parts), and
E. tetralix cross-leaved heath. By botanical writers sometimes limited to the modern genus
Erica, sometimes extended to other cognate genera of
Ericaceæ.
The name
heath seems native to the south and middle of England: see
heather. Since the ‘common heath’ is now separated from the genus
Erica, botanical writers sometimes distinguish it from the ‘true heaths’ by its northern names
ling and
heather; but locally all three names include all the native species. Of early botanical writers, Turner mentions only
E. vulgaris, Lyte (
transl. Dodoens),
E. vulgaris and
tetralix, distinguished as ‘long heath’ and ‘smal heath’.
| c 1000 Sax. Leechd. I. 354 Wið liþa sare..smeoce mid hæþe, and þæt ylce on wine drince. c 1325 Know Thyself 30 in E.E.P. (1862) 131 What is al þat forþ is past Hit fareþ as fuir of heth. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 238/2 Hethe or lynge, fowaly, bruarium. 1548 Turner Names of Herbes (E.D.S.) 35 Erice is called in greeke Ereice, it is named in english Heth, hather, or ling..it groweth on frith and wyld mores; some vse to make brusshes of heath. 1578 Lyte Dodoens vi. xvi. 677 There is in this Countrie two kindes of Heath, one..is called long Heath. The other..smal Heath. 1610 Shakes. Temp. i. i. 70 Now would I giue a thousand furlongs of Sea, for an Acre of barren ground: Long heath, Browne firrs, anything. 1686 Plot Staffordsh. 379 They frequently used the Erica vulgaris, heath, or ling instead of hopps to preserve their beer. 1728–46 Thomson Spring 513 Oft with bolder wing they [bees] soaring dare The purple heath, or where the wild-thyme grows. 1794 Martyn Rousseau's Bot. xix. 258 Common Heath..is distinguished by the anthers being terminated with an awn, and lying within the flower. Ibid., Fine-leaved Heath has crested anthers lying within the corolla. 1834 M. Somerville Connect. Phys. Sc. xxvii. (1849) 307 Heaths are exclusively confined to the Old World. 1858 R. Hogg Veg. Kingd. 482 The Common Heath, or Ling, of the hills of Britain, is Calluna vulgaris..With Heath, cottages are thatched, besoms are made, and faggots are composed to burn in ovens. Ibid. 483 The Heaths [of] our greenhouses are all natives of the Cape of Good Hope, and embrace upwards of six hundred species and varieties. |
c. With distinctive additions, applied to other species of
Erica, and allied genera; and popularly to some other plants.
The three less common British species are the
ciliated heath,
Cornish heath, and
Mediterranean heaths (
E. ciliaris,
vagans,
Mediterranea); other species are
Sicilian heath,
Spanish heath,
tree heath, and
winter h. American false heath,
Hudsonia ericoides.
black-berried h. the Crowberry,
Empetrum nigrum;
Irish or
St. Dabeoc's h.,
Menziesia polifolia;
Australian h.,
Epacris grandiflora;
Otago h.,
Leucopogon Fraseri;
sea heath,
Frankenia levis;
Tasmanian h.,
Epacris exserta.
† heath of Jericho, Rose of Jericho,
Anastatica Hierochuntina.
| 1617 Minsheu Ductor, Heath of Jericho, erica Hiericontœa, quod similitudinem aliquam habeat cum erica. |
d. In two passages (
Jer. xvii. 6, xlviii. 6) in Coverdale's and later versions of the Bible, applied to some desert plant, identified variously with Tamarisk, or with Savin,
Juniperus Sabina.
| 1535 Coverdale Jer. xvii. 6 He shall be like the heeth, that groweth in the wildernes [1382 Wyclif iencian trees, 1388 bromes, 1611 heath, 1885 (R.V.) marg. Or, a tamarisk]. Ibid. xlviii. 6 Get you awaye..and be like vnto the heeth in y⊇ wildernes [Wyclif, 1611 and R.V. as before]. |
3. Short for
heath butterfly,
moth: see 5 c.
| 1827 Butterfly Collector's Vade Mecum 68 Hipparchia Typhon, Scarce Heath. H. Pamphilus, Small Heath ..H. Tithonus, Large Heath. 1832 J. Rennie Butterflies & Moths 101 The Brown Heath (F[idonia] atomaria, Haworth)..Common. Ibid. 102 The Grey Heath (F. ericetaria, Stephens) appears in August. 1871 E. Newman Brit. Butterflies (1874) 93 The Large Heath, Epinephele Tithonus. Ibid. 101 The Small Heath, Cœnonympha Pamphilus. |
4. attrib. and
Comb. a. simple
attrib., as
heath-bank,
heath-besom,
heath-broom,
heath-bush,
heath-field (
a 1000),
heath-fire,
heath-flower,
heath-ground,
heath-honey,
heath-land,
heath-man,
heath-mould,
heath-mutton,
heath-pony,
heath-snail,
heath-soil,
heath-tribe.
b. obj. and
obj. gen., as
heath-cropping adj.,
heath-keeper,
heath-tramper.
c. locative and instrumental, as
heath-bred,
heath-clad,
heath-grown,
heath-roofed,
heath-thatched adjs. d. heath-like adj.| 1813 Coleridge Remorse iii. i, Stretched on the broad top of a sunny *heath-bank. |
| 1610 J. Heath Epigr. in Brit. Bibl. (1812) II. 250 That *Heath-bred Muse. |
| 1874 P.O. Lond. Trades Directory, *Heath Broom Makers. |
| 1470–85 Malory Arthur xxi. iv, Ryght soo came an adder oute of a lytel *hethe busshe. |
| 1766 J. Cunningham Day vii, On the *heath-clad hill. |
| c 909 Charter of Eadweard in Cod. Dipl. V. 177 Ðonan to higgeate; ðæt utt on ðone *hæðfeld. |
| 1787 G. White Selborne vii. 20 About March or April..vast *heath-fires are lighted up. |
| 1810 Scott Lady of L. i. xviii, A foot more light..Ne'er from the *heath-flower dashed the dew. 1824 Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. (1863) 101 The ruddy glow of the heath-flower. |
| 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §2 Some sande..and in many places *heeth grounde. 1653 Walton Angler 222 Ploughing up heath⁓ground. |
| 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iv. (1586) 184 *Heath Hony, a wilde kind of Hony..being gathered..while the Heath is in floure. |
| 1895 St. James' Gaz. 10 Sept. 9/2 An auxiliary *heathkeeper in the employment of the London County Council. |
| 1819 Rees Cycl., Heath-plough, a plough for preparing *heath-land for planting. 1936 Discovery Jan. 25/1 Only about 50,000 acres of Breckland remain at the present moment as heathland. 1954 M. Beresford Lost Villages vi. 200 This was forest, scrub or rough heathland. 1966 M. R. D. Foot SOE in France xii. 407 Bourgoin was too wily a fighter to be rounded up methodically in his heathland base. |
| 1864 Thoreau Cape Cod vii. (1894) 159 A barren, *heath-like plain. |
| 1861 Delamer Fl. Gard. 118 In pots, Heaths must have *heath-mould. |
| 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. (1820) 166 As much superior in flavour..as my *heath-mutton is to that of St. James's Market. |
| 1804 J. Grahame Sabbath (1808) 67 Yon *heath-roofed shielin. |
| 1832 Carlyle Remin. i. 51 This little *heath-thatched house. |
| 1853 C. A. Johns Flowers of Field (1885) 392 Ericaceæ, the *Heath Tribe. |
5. a. Special
Combs.:
heath-ale,
-beer, a traditional beverage said to have been anciently brewed from the flowers of heather;
heath-blooms, a name given by some to the plants of the Natural Order
Ericaceæ;
† heath-coal: see
heathen-coal;
heath-cropper,
lit. one that crops or feeds on heath; a sheep or pony, living on open heath or down; hence, a person who inhabits a heath;
heath-fowl = heath-bird;
heath-game, grouse or moorfowl;
heath-stone, see
quots.;
heath-tax, a tax to defray the expenses of repairing the course at Newmarket;
heath-throstle,
-thrush, the Ring Blackbird or Ring-ouzel,
Turdus torquatus.
| 1801 J. Leyden Elfin-King xxi, The cup..With *heath-ale mantling o'er. 1828 Scott Rev. Ritson's Hist. Wks. (1849) 356 The genuine heath-ale of the Picts. |
| 1858 R. Hogg Veg. Kingd. 479 Ericaceæ, *Heath-blooms. |
| 1819 Rees Cycl. s.v. Sheep, *Heath-cropper, a small ill-shaped breed..of sheep..found abundantly..within the precincts of the forest of Windsor. 1863 Kingsley Water Bab. ii. 62 You are a heath cropper bred and born. 1893 H. J. Moule Old Dorset 109 They tramped, or rode their shaggy heath-croppers. |
| 1804 J. Grahame Sabbath (1839) 6/2 The *heath⁓fowl's plumes. 1823 in Joanna Baillie's Collect. Poems 287 Conceal'd 'mong the mist, where the heath-fowl was crying. |
| 1711 Act 9 Anne c. 27 §3 *Heath-Game or Grouse. 1773 Barrington in Phil. Trans. LXIII. 229 The claws of our common Grous, or Heath-game. |
| 1447–8 in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) I. 399 Ragge *hethstones and Flints to be purveid for the seid werkes. 1813 G. Robertson Agric. Surv. Kincard. 3 (Jam.) There is a variety..known under the name of Heathens or heath-stone, and is I think what is otherwise called Gneiss. 1851 Dict. Archit., Heath-stone, a name given by builders to a description of sandstone that occurs in irregular masses in the Bagshot sands. |
| 1856 in ‘Stonehenge’ Brit. Sports (1886) 510 The payment of *Heath Tax shall not be taken to confer on the person paying the same any legal rights which shall interfere..with the absolute control the Club now has over all persons using or going on to their grounds. |
| 1676 Lister in Ray's Corr. (1848) 125 *Heath-throstle..the Ring-ouzle is so called with us in Craven. |
| 1804 C. Smith Conversations II. 54 Bashful..The *heath-thrush makes his domicile. |
b. In names of trees and plants: applied to any species which grows on heaths, as
heath bedstraw,
heath hair-grass,
heath mouse-ear,
heath rush;
† heath-bramble, the Dewberry,
Rubus cæsius;
heath-corn (
U.S.), Buckwheat,
Polygonum Fagopyrum;
heath-cup, an erect herb,
Artanema fimbriatum (N.O.
Scrophulariaceæ), native of the East Indies and Australia, cultivated for its large blue flowers;
heath-cypress, a Club-moss,
Lycopodium alpinum;
heath-fern, the Sweet Mountain Fern,
Lastrea Oreopteris;
heath-grass,
Triodia decumbens;
heath-honeysuckle, Australian name for a flowering shrub,
Banksia serrata;
† heath-rose, the Rose of Jericho,
Anastatica Hierochuntina.
| 1578 Lyte Dodoens vi. iv. 661 The lesser berie is called..in Englishe, a heare Bremble, or *heath Bramble..The fruite is called a Dewberie, or blackberie. |
| 1551 Turner Herbal i. I iv a, Chamaecyparissus..may be called in English *hethe cypres because it groweth amonge hethe, or dwarf cypres. 1777 Robson British Flora 264 Lycopodium alpinum..Cypress Wolfsclaw, Heath Cypress. |
| 1863 Kingsley Water Bab. ii. (1889) 50 Heaps of fallen limestone..with holes between them full of sweet *heath-fern. |
| 1578 Lyte Dodoens i. lx. 87 The small [Pilosella]..may be called in English..*Heath mouse-eare. |
| 1597 Gerarde Herbal (1633) 1387 The Rose of Jerico..in English, the *Heath Rose. |
c. In names of butterflies and moths: see
quots. and
cf. sense 3.
| 1832 J. Rennie Butterflies & Moths 137 The Heath Rivulet (E[mmelesia] ericetata..) appears in June. 1871 E. Newman Brit. Butterflies (1874) 46 The Heath Fritillary..is fond of basking on thistles. 1883 Cassell's Nat. Hist. VI. 67 The Heath Moths, or Fidonidæ, fly by day. |
Hence
heath v. trans., to cover with heath.
| 1862 Macm. Mag. Sept. 426 How was it lichened and mossed, ferned and heathed..and brought to such a show of verdure and softness? |