heather
(ˈhɛðə(r))
Forms: 4, 6 hathir, 5 had(d)yr, 6 haddir, hedder, 6–7 hadder, 6–8 hather, 8 hether, 8– heather.
[Of uncertain origin: commonly viewed as related to heath; but the form heather appears first in 18th c., and the earlier hadder seems on several grounds to discountenance such a derivation. The word appears to have been originally confined to Scotland (with the contiguous part of the English Border); the northern Engl. equivalent, as in Yorkshire, etc., being ling, from Norse. The word heath, on the other hand, seems to be native only in Southern and Midland counties, and never to have been applied to the Yorkshire or Scottish ‘moors’; it is only in comparatively recent times that the southern English heath and the Sc. hadder, hedder, have been associated, and the spelling heather thence introduced. On the analogy of adder, bladder, ladder, now in Sc. èther, blèther, lèther, and of Eng. feather, together, weather, we should expect heather to go back through hedder, hadder, to a type hædder or hæddre.]
1. a. The Scotch name, now in general use, for the native species of the Linnæan genus Erica, called in the north of England, ling; especially E. (now Calluna) vulgaris, common heather, and E. cinerea, fine-leaved heath or lesser bell-heather.
Some recent botanical writers have essayed to limit the originally local names heath, ling, heather, to different species; but each of these names is, in its own locality, applied to all the species there found, and pre-eminently to that locally most abundant. On the Yorkshire and Scottish moors, the most abundant is E. vulgaris, which is therefore the ‘common ling’ of the one, the ‘common heather’ of the other. But in other localities, esp. in the south-west, E. cinerea is the prevalent species, and is there the ‘common heath’. Scottish distinctions are dog-heather, he-heather (E. vulgaris), carlin h., she-heather (E. cinerea).
| 1335 Compotus Procuratoris de Norham (Durham Treasury MS.), In strauue et hathir emptis pro coopertura domus molendini. c 1470 Henry Wallace v. 300 In heich haddyr Wallace and thai can twyn. Ibid. xi. 898 Hadyr and hay bond apon flakys fast. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems lxvi. 86 Greit abbais grayth I nill to gather, Bot ane kirk scant coverit with hadder. 1548 Hather [see heath 2 b]. 1572 Satir. Poems Reform. xxxii. 19 With Peittis, with Turuis, and mony turse of Hedder. 1578 Lyte Dodoens vi. xvi. 678 Heath, Hather, and Lyng is called in high and base Almaigne, Heyden. 1607 Norden Surv. Dial. (N.), Heath is the generall or common name, whereof there is one kind, called hather, the other ling. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. iii. ii. vi. i. (1651) 546 Those Indian Brachmanni..lay upon the ground covered with skins, as the Redshanks do on Hadder. 1633 Hart Diet Diseased i. xxvii. 126 In the Northerne..places of this Island..They dry their malt with ling, or heath, called there hadder. 1674–91 Ray N.C. Words 135 Hadder, Heath or Ling. 1725 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Plague, They are to give them Hather or Hadder to eat. c 1730 Burt Lett. N. Scotl. xiii. (1754) I. 297 The Surface of the Ground is all over Heath, or, as they call it, Heather. 1866 Treas. Bot. 199/1 Calluna. The true ‘Heather’ of Scotland, called also Ling and Common Heath. 1873 Black Pr. Thule 3 Set amid the browns and greens of the heather. |
b. Phr.
to set the heather on fire: to make a disturbance.
to take to the heather: to become an outlaw or bandit.
| 1818 Scott Rob Roy xxxv, It's partly that whilk has set the heather on fire. 1896 Westm. Gaz. 28 July 1/3 A woman..informed against the murderer, who at once ‘took to the heather’. |
2. Applied with distinctive additions to other plants.
Himalayan heather,
Andromeda fastigiata (Miller, 1884);
monox heather, the Crowberry;
silver or
sponge heather, the moss
Polytrichum commune. (Britten &
Holl. Plant-n.)
3. attrib. and
Comb. a. Of, pertaining to, consisting of, or made from heather, as
heather-ale,
heather-bed,
heather-beer,
heather-besom,
heather-bloom,
heather-blossom,
heather-brae,
heather-brake,
heather-bush,
heather-cow (
cow n.2),
heather-honey,
heather-knoll,
heather-land,
heather-roof,
heather-top,
heather-tuft,
heather-wine.
b. Of the colour or appearance of heather: applied to fabrics, etc., of a mixed or speckled hue thought to resemble that of heather, as
heather-mixture,
heather-stockings,
heather-suit,
heather-tweed,
heather-wool.
c. heather-clad,
heather-covered,
heather-mixed,
heather-sweet adjs. d. heather-cat, a cat living wild and roaming among the heather; hence
fig. applied to a person;
heather-grass = heath-grass,
Triodia decumbens;
heather-owl, the Short-eared Owl,
Asio accipitrinus.
| 1820 Scott Monast. xxv, Halbert Glendinning..expressed himself unwilling to take any liquor stronger than the *heather ale, which was at that time frequently used at meals. |
| 1724 Ramsay Gentl. Sheph. ii. i, And skulk in hidings on the *heather braes. |
| 1855 Kingsley Heroes, Theseus i. 196 Beneath whose shade grew..purple *heather-bushes. |
| 1886 Stevenson Kidnapped xvi. 153 He's here and awa; here to-day and gone to morrow; a fair *heather-cat. 1895 Crockett Men of Moss Hags xvi, That daft heather-cat of a cousin of mine. |
| 1886 G. Allen Maimie's Sake ii. 12 To climb the *heather-clad hill. |
| 1818 Scott Br. Lamm. xxix, What good can the poor bird do..except pine and die in the first *heather-cow or whin-bush she can crawl into? |
| 1826 Blackw. Edin. Mag. XX. 412/1 *Heather-honey of this blessed year's produce. 1863 Kingsley Water Bab. (1879) 146 He..smelt..the wafts of heather honey off the grouse moor. 1935 Jrnl. Physical Chem. XXXIX. 213 The term ‘heather honey’ is used to describe any honey derived largely from the nectar of Calluna vulgaris, Erica cinerea, and allied species. 1971 Country Life 28 Oct. 1107/2 The drawback to heather honey is that it is difficult to extract. 1971 Harrod's Xmas Catal. 59/3 ‘Double Scotch’ Honey is a unique blend of Scottish heather honey and rare old malt whisky. |
| 1863 J. G. Baker N. Yorksh. 181 A considerable extent of the surface yet remains as *heatherland. |
| 1885 Mabel Collins Prettiest Woman xxvi, He changed his ‘*heather-mixture’ for clothes more suitable to Piccadilly. |
| 1819 Rees Cycl. s.v., *Heather-roofs are frequently met with in the district of Cowal. |
| 1876 Mrs. Alexander Her Dearest Foe I. 278 Tom entered, in a bright purple-tinted ‘*heather suit’. |
| 1824 Scott St. Ronan's ii, A head like a *heather-tap. |
______________________________
▸
N. Amer. A textile speckled or flecked with multiple colours or shades (
cf. Compounds 2). Freq. with modifying word indicating the predominant colour, as
charcoal heather,
grey heather, etc.
| 1913 Manitoba Free Press 15 Feb. 5/3 (advt.) Men's socks, in grey heather and Lovat shades. 1966 Northwest Arkansas Times 4 Aug. 28/1 (advt.) Now in stock in over 30 beautiful new fall colors including many Heathers. 2002 W. M. Ellis Refl. on Acad. Life N. Dakota ii. 19 She wore a chalk pink blazer..and charcoal heather slacks. |