ore-weed, oar-weed local.
(ˈɔəwiːd)
Forms: 6–9 ore-, 7 or-, 8– oar-; 6 -wad, 7–8 -wood, 7– -weed.
[f. ore5 + weed. The forms in wad, wood, app. arose from the second element being unaccented, and may have been popularly associated with other words.]
Seaweed; = ore5, laminaria.
| α 1586 J. Hooker Hist. Irel. in Holinshed II. 183 The common people..had a long time liued on limpets, orewads, and such shelfish as they could find. 1602 Carew Cornwall 27 Orewood, which is a weed growing vpon the rockes vnder high water marke, or..cast vpon the next shore by the wind and flood. 1610 W. Folkingham Art of Survey i. x. 30 They vse both Orewood, Sea-sand, and Sea-slubbe for soylings. 1725 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Sea Weed, That call'd Ore-Wood is much used in Cornwall. |
| β 1622 R. Hawkins Voy. S. Sea (1847) 108 He shall meete with bedds of oreweed, driving to and fro in that sea. 1669 Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 68 In Cornwal there is also a Weed called Ore-weed. 1892 Quiller-Couch I saw three Ships 80 Manure better than the ore-weed you gather down at the Cove. |
| γ 1755 Gentl. Mag. XXV. 447 A sea weed, called oarweed, is also sometimes used, but principally for gardens. 1855 Kingsley Glaucus ii. 57 Tangle (oar-weed, as they call it in the south). 1884 West. Morn. News 20 June 2/5 For Sale, Boat, suitable for oar⁓weed. 1917 Chambers's Jrnl. July 473/1 The ‘oar weed’ variety of seaweed..contains considerable supplies of potash. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 45 He climbed over the sedge and eely oarweeds. 1954 New Biol. XVII. 102 The broad oar-weeds, the Laminarias,..occupy the shore at low⁓water mark of spring tides and at greater depth. 1971 C. L. Duddington Beginner's Guide to Seaweeds iii. 47 The oarweeds (genus Laminaria) are large seaweeds that grow in the sublittoral zone, from just below low-tide mark down to a depth of about fifteen feet. The oarweeds are perennial plants. Ibid., The oarweeds have a varied history of usefulness, first in the old kelp burning industry..and later as a source of alginic acid and alginates. |