mucilage
(ˈmjuːsɪlɪdʒ)
Forms: 5 muscillage, 5–7 muscilage, 6 muscellage, musilage, mus(se)lege, mucculage, 6–7 mucillage, 7 mussilage, mus(i)lidge, mucilege, 8 mucillage, 9 musilage, 7– mucilage.
[a. F. mucilage (14th c.), ad. late L. mūcilāgo (c 400) musty juice (whence Sp. mucilago, Pg. mucilagem, It. mucillaggine, mucellaggine), f. L. mūcus mucus.]
1. a. A viscous substance obtained from the roots, seeds, and other parts of plants by maceration in water. Also pl. in the same sense.
| c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 245 Tempere hem wiþ muscilage of fenigrec. 15.. in Vicary's Anat. (1888) App. ix. 221 Put in x vnces of the saide muscellage. 1575 Turberv. Falconrie 222 A mucillage of Psillium. 1681 tr. Willis' Rem. Med. Wks. Vocab., Mucilage, thick boiling up of a thing to a gelly, or thick consistency. 1746 H. Pemberton Dispens. 349 Oil of Mucilages. 1747 Wesley Prim. Physic (1762) 118 Boil Comfrey Roots to a thick Mucilage. 1842 Parnell Chem. Anal. (1845) 37 The mucilage may be prepared by rubbing common starch with cold water. 1887 C. A. Moloney Forestry W. Afr. 282 Urena lobata, L.—A common Tropical weed, used medicinally as a mucilage. |
b. transf. A viscous mass, a pulp.
| 1657–83 Evelyn Hist. Relig. (1850) I. 196 The hardest seeds corrupt and are turned to mucilage and rottenness. 1692 Bentley Boyle Lect. v. 124 A mucilage of bruised spiders. 1766 Museum Rust. VI. 318 To pound their bodies and eggs together into one common mucilage. 1812 J. J. Henry Camp. agst. Quebec 96 The meat required no cutting, as it was reduced to a musilage, or at least to shreds. |
| fig. 1825 Examiner 271/2 Their dramatic dialogue is..a mucilage of sentiment without natural bones or substance. |
c. spec. Chiefly U.S. An aqueous solution of gum or of substances allied to it, used as an adhesive (Webster 1897).
In England commonly called ‘gum’.
| 1859 La Crosse (Wisconsin) Daily Union 15 Oct. 3/3 Mucilage, sealing wax, playing cards. 1880 W. Newton Serm. for Boys & G. (1881) 413 She [a spider] makes mucilage in her body and fastens the two pieces down. |
2. A viscous lubricating fluid (e.g. mucus, synovia) in animal bodies.
| 1600 Surflet Country Farm i. xii. 58 The muscilage of shell snailes. 1689 Havers Osteol. Nova (1691) 201 The Liquor separated by them [i.e. the mucilaginous glands] is a Mucilage, which is almost like the white of an Egg. 1717 J. Keill Anim. Oecon. (1738) 120 The most viscid Secretions, such as the Mucilage of the Joints, are separated at the greatest Distance from the Heart. 1718 J. Chamberlayne Relig. Philos. (1730) I. iv. §8 The Mucilage or Slime of the Stomach. 1802 Paley Nat. Theol. vii. (1819) 76 The slippery mucilage which lubricates the joints. 1831 R. Knox Cloquet's Anat. 566 M. Vauquelin thinks that three substances form the base of the cerumen: a fat oil, an albuminous animal mucilage, and a colouring matter. |
3. a. Bot. A gummy secretion present in various parts of vegetable organisms.
| 1677 Grew Anat. Fruits i. §14 Out of all these sap-vessels, issues a transparent and viscous Mucilage. 1807 J. E. Smith Phys. Bot. 70 The most distinct secretions of vegetables require to be enumerated..Gum or mucilage, a viscid substance..is very general. 1884 Bower & Scott De Bary's Phaner. 510 In other woods..a transformation into disorganised masses of mucilage and gum takes place. |
b. Chem. ‘Vegetable gelatine belonging to the amylose group of carbohydrates’ (B. D. Jackson Gloss. Bot. Terms 1900).
| 1807 T. Thomson Chem. (ed. 3) II. 293 He concluded that mucilage had been present; for mucilage is composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. 1857 Miller Elem. Chem. (1862) III. 109 Mucilage or bassorin (C12H10O10) is a modification of gum which is insoluble in water. |
4. Comb., as mucilage-containing adj.; also † mucilage mallow, Althæa officinalis; mucilage-passage Bot., a vessel or duct by which mucilage is conveyed.
| 1578 Lyte Dodoens v. xxvii. 586 The Mucculage Mallowe. 1884 Bower & Scott De Bary's Phaner. 137 This plant has mucilage-containing sacs and cavities. Ibid. 202 Mucilage- and gum-passages in the Marattiaceæ [etc.]. |