▪ I. wheatear1
(ˈhwiːtɪə(r))
[ear n.2]
1. An ear of wheat.
| c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) vii. 27 Þe seuen barayne ȝeres þat ware betakned by þe seuen deed qwhete eres. [1688 Holme Armoury i. 103/3 Our old English terms were these..Whet-herys, Wheat Ears.] 1798 Bloomfield Farmer's Boy, Summer 52 Shot up from broad rank blades that droop below, The nodding wheat-ear forms a graceful bow. c 1840 Eliza Cook Song of Sun iv, Who else can purple the grape on the vine, Or flush the wheat-ear with gold? 1878 Meredith Love in Valley 158 Slain are the poppies that shot their random scarlet Quick amid the wheatears. |
2. A pattern in embroidery, lace, weaving, etc., or an ornament in wood-carving, etc., resembling an ear of wheat.
| 1882 Caulfeild & Saward Dict. Needlework 195/2 Wheatear Stitch. This stitch is a combination of Point Natté and Chain Stitch. 1911 Encycl. Brit. XIII. 306/1 The backs of Hepplewhite chairs were often adorned with galleries and festoons of wheat-ears or pointed fern leaves. 1919 T. Wright Romance Lace Pillow ix. 83 The ancient pattern called the Wheat-ear and Cornflower..is still made. 1955 R. W. Millar tr. Daniel-Rops' Jesus in His Time ix. 366 Heavy columns of porphyry with rather ungainly capitals carved with grapes and wheat⁓ears. 1957 Simpson & Weir Weaver's Craft xii. 151 The patterns most generally used for tweeds are..Twill..Goose eye..Wheatear. 1977 Penguin Dict. Decorative Arts 374/2 Typical of the [Hepplewhite] style are..wheat-ears with which the central splat of shield-back and other chairs are decorated. |
Hence ˈwheat-eared a., full of wheat-ears.
| 1792 Ess. towards new Ed. Tibullus 11 Be thine, blond Ceres, from my wheat-ear'd field, A pendant crown thy temple's doors to grace. |
▪ II. wheatear2
(ˈhwiːtɪə(r))
Also 6 whekere (?), 7 wheat ears, wheatgear (?).
[Early evidence wanting prob. on account of local origin; but the orig. form is app. still represented in the 17th cent. by wheatears (a 1661) for *whiteeres, f. whit-, white a. (cf. for the phonology the place-name Whittern, OE. hw{iacu}tærn) + eeres, ers, arse, the name being given in allusion to the bird's white rump; cf. Cornish dial. form whiteass, the similar dial. names white rump, wittol = white-tail (in Cotgr. whittaile, glossing F. culblanc ‘white-rump’), and Du. witstaart, G. weiss-schwanz. From wheatears, taken as pl., a supposed sing. wheatear was inferred, and association with wheat n. (see quot. 1653, etc.) established the spelling of the first syllable.]
A small passerine bird, Saxicola œnanthe, widely distributed over the Old World, having a bluish-grey back, white belly, rump, and upper tail-coverts, and blackish wings; esteemed as a delicacy.
| 1591 Shuttleworths' Acc. (Chetham Soc.) 70 A courleve xvj{supd}; thrie whekeres [so printed], xvj{supd}; larkes and yowloringes, iiij{supd}. 1653 J. Taylor (Water P.) Cert. Trav. Uncert. Journ. 17 There were rare Birds I never saw before... Th'are called Wheat ears, less then Lark or Sparrow... The name of Wheat ears, on them is ycleap'd, Because they come when wheat is yearly reap'd. a 1661 Fuller Worthies (1662) iii. 98 Wheat-ears is a bird peculiar to this County [i.e. Sussex], hardly found out of it. It is so called, because fattest when Wheat is ripe, whereon it feeds... That Palateman shall pass in silence, who being seriously demanded his judgment concerning the abilities of a great Lord, concluded him a man of very weak parts, because once he saw him at a great Feast feed on Chickens when there were Wheat-Ears on the Table. a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Wheat⁓gear, a Bird smaller than a Dottrel. 1724 De Foe Tour Gt. Brit. I. ii. 57 The Bird call'd a Wheatear, or as we may call them, the English Ortolans. 1770 Cumberland West Indian iii. ii, A hot-brain'd headlong spark, that would run into our trap, like a wheat-ear under a turf. 1883 Century Mag. XXVII. 111 The wheat-ear uncovered its white rump as it flitted from rock to rock. 1894 R. B. Sharpe Hand-bk. Birds Gt. Brit. I. 291 The winter home of the Wheatear extends from the North-western Himalayas to Persia, and also to North-eastern and Eastern Africa, as well as to Senegambia. |