Lapland
(ˈlæplənd, -lænd)
[a. Sw. Lappland: see Lapp and land.]
1. a. The region which forms the most northerly portion of the Scandinavian peninsula, now divided politically between Finland, Norway, Sweden, and the Soviet Union.
Formerly, the fabled home of witches and magicians, who had power to send winds and tempests. Freq. attrib., as Lapland witch, Lapland giant, etc.
| c 1590 Marlowe Faustus i. i, Like..Lapland Gyants, trotting by our sides. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. i. ii. i. ii. 63 And nothing so familiar..as for Witches and Sorcerers, in Lapland, Lituania, and all ouer Scandia, to sell winds to Marriners, and cause tempests. 1636 Shirley Duke's Mistr. ii. i. (1638) C 4 b, I..dare Encounter with an armie out of Lapland. 1640 Habington Q. of Arragon i. i, Your Lord⁓ship then Shall walke as safe, as if a Lapland witch..preserv'd you shot-free. 1668 Dryden Even. Love ii. (1671) 26 Not a Ship shall pass out from any Port, but shall ask thee for a wind; thou shalt have all the trade of Lapland within a month. 1679 Oldham Sat. Jesuits iii. (1685) 55 How travelling Saints, well mounted on a Switch, Ride Journeys thro' the Air, like Lapland Witch. 1695 Congreve Love for love iii. 42 Marry thee! Oons I'll Marry a Lapland Witch as soon, and live upon selling of contrary Winds, and Wrack'd Vessels. 1725 Ramsay Gent. Sheph. ii. ii, Lapland clay, Mixt with the venom of black taids and snakes. 1802 Wordsw. ‘Dear Child of Nature’, An old age, serene and bright And lovely as a Lapland night. |
† b. A native of this region; a Lapland witch.
| 1634 T. Heywood Lanc. Witches v. K, Then to work, to work my pretty Laplands: Pinch, here, scratch. 1635 ― Hierarch. viii. 506 The Finnes and Laplands are acquainted well With such like Sp'rits, and Windes to Merchants sell. |
2. Lapland bunting, a northern species of bunting, Calcarius lapponicus.
| 1862 [see lark n.1 2]. 1912 W. E. Clarke Stud. Bird Migration II. xxiv. 268 Lapland bunting, Calcarius lapponicus.—Since our discovery of this species, Eilean Mor has been visited annually. 1953 D. A. Bannerman Birds Brit. Isles I. 313 The Lapland bunting was added to the British list in 1826, when Selby described an example sent from Cambridgeshire to Leadenhall Market. 1971 Country Life 9 Sept. 616/2 Rare visitors [in Yorkshire]..such as..Lapland Bunting. |
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Add: [2.] Lapland longspur N. Amer. = Lapland bunting above.
| 1828 C. L. Bonaparte Amer. Ornith. II. 53 *Lapland Longspur, Emberiza Lapponica,..long since known to inhabit the desolate Arctic regions of both continents, is now for the first time introduced into the Fauna of the United States. 1972 S. Burnford One Woman's Arctic ii. 56 Apart from the ever-present Lapland longspurs, there were few birds yet. 1993 Uphere Oct.–Nov. 62/1 As we pass, horned larks and Lapland longspurs frantically attempt to lure us away from their nests on the ground. |