mandragora
(mænˈdrægərə)
Forms: α. 1– mandragora, 3 mandragores, 6–7 mandragoras. β. (in anglicized form) 4 pl. mandragoris, 6 mandragor, -er, 8–9 -ore.
[late L. mandragora (mandragoras Pliny), a. Gr. µανδραγόρας.]
1. a. The plant mandrake. Now only Hist. b. Bot. The genus to which this plant belongs. c. Since Shakespeare, taken as the type of a narcotic.
In Shakes. Ant. & Cl. i. v. 4 the First Folio has the misprint mandragoru, whence perh. mandragorn in Scott's Kenilworth (1821) I. xii. 311. Cf. however mandragon.
| c 1000 Sax. Leechd. I. 244 Ðeos wyrt þe man mandragoram nemneþ. c 1220 Bestiary 613 A gres, ðe name is mandragores. 1388 Wyclif Song Sol. vii. 13 Mandrogoris han ȝoue her odour in oure ȝatis. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P. R. xvii. civ. (Tollem. MS.), They þat diggen mandragora be besy to be war of contrarye wynde. 1535 Coverdale Gen. xxx. 14 Ruben wente out..and founde Mandragoras in the felde. 1542 Boorde Dyetary xx. (1870) 281 Mandragor doth helpe a woman to concepcion. 1578 Lyte Dodoens iii. lxxxiv. 438 The greene and fresh leaues of Mandragoras. 1604 Shakes. Oth. iii. iii. 330 Not Poppy, nor Mandragora, Nor all the drowsie Syrrups of the world Shall euer [etc.]. 1605 Chapman, etc. Eastward Hoe v. i, I haue..drunke Lethe and Mandragora to forget you. 1623 Webster Duchess of Malfi iv. ii, Come violent death, Serue for Mandragora to make me sleepe. 1738 Common Sense II. 4 The Drug call'd Mandragore. 1830 Galt Laurie T. v. xi. (1849) 242 Earnest employment is the best mandragora for an aching heart. 1855 Thackeray Newcomes II. 19 He dosed himself with poppy, and mandragora, and blue pill. 1876 Farrar Marlb. Serm. vi. 56 The river of oblivion of sin repented of, the true mandragora for every guilty and sleepless soul. |
| attrib. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P. R. xvii. cxii. (1495) 675 Oyle of Mandragora apples. 1826 W. Ainslie Materia Indica I. 208 The anodyne and soporific qualities of the mandragore root. 1832 Carlyle Corn-law Rhymes Misc. 1857 III. 161 Her Ariel Melodies, and mystic mandragora Moans. |
d. = mandrake wine.
| 1844 Mrs. Browning Dead Pan ii, Have the Pygmies made you drunken, Bathing in mandragora Your divine pale lips.. ? |
† 2. Chinese mandragoras: ginseng.
| 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v. |
Hence
manˈdragorite, one who is habitually under the narcotic influence of mandragora.
| 1895 Funk's Standard Dict. 1902 Webster Suppl. |