tulip
(ˈtjuːlɪp)
[Formerly tulipa, tulippa, also tulipant, -pan = F. tulipan, tulipe, It. tulipano, Sp. tulipan, Pg. tulipa, -ippa, mod.L. tulīpa; early mod.Du. and Ger. tulpe, Du. tulp, Da. tulipan, Sw. tulpan; all from tul(i)band, vulgar Turkish pronunciation of Persian dulband ‘turban’, which the expanded flower of the tulip is thought to resemble: cf. turban.]
1. a. A bulbous plant of the genus Tulipa (NO. Liliaceæ), esp. the species T. Gesneriana, introduced from Turkey into Western Europe in the 16th c., and since extensively cultivated in very numerous varieties, blooming in spring, with broad bell-shaped or cup-shaped, usually erect, showy flowers, of various colours and markings; also, the flower itself.
The first mention of it by a Western European is by Busbek (c 1554), the Emperor's ambassador, on the way from Adrianople to Constantinople, where ‘ingens ubique florum copia offerebatur, narcissorum, hyacinthorum, et eorum quos Turcae tulipan vocant’. It was grown by the Fuggers at Augsburg, where it was seen and described by Gesner in 1561. It was introduced successively in Vienna, Mechlin, France, and England; it is mentioned by Lyte in his transl. of Dodoneus.
| α 1578 Lyte Dodoens ii. lii. 212 Of Tulpia, or Tulipa... The great Tulpia, or rather Tulipa. Ibid. 213 The greater Tulpia is brought from Grece, and the Countrie about Constantinople... The greater is called both Tulpia, and Tulpian, and of some Tulipa, which is a Turkie name or worde, we may call it Lillynarcissus. 1582 in Hakluyt Voy. (1599) II. 165 Now within these foure yeeres there haue bene brought into England from Vienna..diuers kinds of flowers called Tulipas. 1597 Gerarde Herbal i. lxxvii. 116 Tulipa, or the Dalmatian cap, is a strang and forraine flower. [Ibid. 117 After [the Tulipa of Bolonia] hath beene some fewe daies floured, the points and brims of the flower turne backward, like a Dalmatian or Turkes cap, called Tulipan, Tolepan, Turban, and Turfan, whereof it tooke his name.] 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. iii. ii. iv. i, As a tulipant to the sun (which our herbalists call Narcissus) when it shines is..a glorious flower exposing itself. 1629 Parkinson Paradisus ii. viii. 46 The early Tulipa (and so all other Tulipas) springeth out of the ground with his leaues folded one within another. Ibid. 66 We call it in English the Turkes Cap, but most vsually Tulipa. |
| β 1615 G. Sandys Trav. i. 57 You cannot stirre abroad but you shall be presented by the Deruises and Ianizaries, with tulips and trifles. 1633 Johnson Gerarde's Herbal i. lxxxvii. 139 The bloud-red Tulip with a yellow bottome. Ibid. 140 Tulipa purpurea. The purple Tulip. Tulipa rubra amethistina. The bright red Tulip. 1758 Johnson Idler No. 30 ¶5 Another searches the world for tulips. 1842 Tennyson Gardener's Dau. 189 A Dutch love For tulips. 1872 Yeats Techn. Hist. Comm. 228 Tulips were introduced from Constantinople, and first bloomed in the beautiful grounds of Heinrich Herwart, in 1559. |
b. Applied, usually with defining word, to species of this, and various plants more or less resembling it, or their flowers; also to the flowers of the
tulip-tree; in S. Africa, to a poisonous herb also called
tulip-grass (see 5).
African tulip, the genus
Hæmanthus (N.O.
Amaryllidaceæ).
butterfly tulip, the genus
Calochortus of California, also called
mariposa lily.
Cape tulip, name for several S. African plants: (
a) various species of
Homeria (
= tulip-grass: see 5); (
b)
Melanthium uniflorum (
Bæometra columellaris); (
c) Red Cape tulip,
Hæmanthus coccineus.
chequered tulip,
drooping tulip = wild tulip, (
b).
native tulip, of Australia (see
quot. 1898, and
tulip-tree 2 a).
parrot tulip (see
parrot n. 4).
wild tulip, (
a)
Tulipa sylvestris, a rare and doubtful native of Britain, with fragrant yellow flowers; (
b) a name for the wild fritillary,
Fritillaria Meleagris; (
c) in California,
= butterfly tulip.
| 1759 Miller Gard. Dict. (ed. 7) s.v. Tulip-tree, The Flowers..[have] six Petals,..which form a Sort of Bellshaped Flower, from whence the Inhabitants of North America gave it the Title of Tulip. 1760 J. Lee Introd. Bot. App. 330 African Tulip, Hæmanthus... Chequer'd Tulip, Fritillaria. 1850 Pappe Floræ Capensis Med. Prodr. 26 Moræa collina, Thbg. (known to almost every child in the colony as the Cape Tulip), not for its therapeutical use, but for its obnoxiousness. 1861 Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. V. 276 Wild Tulip..has a much smaller blossom than the cultivated species,..its colour within is bright yellow, and externally yellowish-green. [1863 W. C. Baldwin Afr. Hunting vi. 144 Donker, my best ox is dead, having got at a poisonous kind of grass, called by the Dutch tulp.] 1884 Miller Plant-n., Cape Tulip, Melanthium uniflorum (Tulipa Breyiana). Ibid., Red Cape, Hæmanthus coccineus... Drooping T., Fritillaria Meleagris. Ibid., Calochortus, Butterfly-Tulip,..Mariposa Lily,..Wild Tulip, of California. 1885 Rider Haggard K. Solomon's Mines iv, The other three [oxen] died from eating the poisonous herb called ‘tulip’. 1898 Morris Austral Eng., Telopea,..the genus containing..the Waratah... The name has been corrupted popularly into Tulip, and the flower is often called the Native Tulip. 1908 Westm. Gaz. 14 May 12/1 A field..covered with the purple blossoms of the ‘tulip’, as the villagers call it [the fritillary]. |
2. fig. a. A showy person or thing, or one greatly admired.
| 1647 Cowley Mistress, Beauty iii, Beauty, thou active passive Ill!..Thou Tulip, who thy Stock in Paint dost waste. 1672 Mede's Wks. Life p. xlii, Such Fellow-commoners who came to the University only to see it and to be seen..he call'd The University-Tulips, that made a Gaudy shew for a while. 1701 Cibber Love makes Man v. ii, My little Blossom! my Gilliflower! my Rose! my Pink! my Tulip! 1837 Thackeray Ravenswing i, Morgiana was a tulip among women, and the tulip fanciers all came flocking round her. |
b. slang. my tulip, ‘my fine fellow’.
| 1847 Punch 16 Oct. 148/1 This, my tulip, is a salle de danse. 1895 ‘G. Mortimer’ Tales from Western Moors iii. 67 'Cos for this, my tulip,..work and me fell out a long time back. |
3. a. A bell-shaped outward swell in the muzzle of a gun, now generally disused.
| 1884 [implied in tulip choke]. 1889 Engineer Oct. 314 Breech-loading guns,..gradually tapering from a diameter of 4 ft. 7 in. at the breech to 17 in. near the muzzle, which possesses what artillerists call a tulip or ‘swell’. |
b. An explosive charge used to destroy a length of railway track. Now
Hist.| 1918 T. E. Lawrence in Lett. (1938) 250 A gang of four men can lay twenty ‘tulips’ in an hour on easy ballast, and for each two slabs (and single fuse) you ruin a sleeper, a yard of bank and two rails. 1920 Blackw. Mag. May 599/2 J. and I tried our prentice hands at the new game of ‘planting tulips’. 1956 Railway Mag. Mar. 167/1 ‘Tulips’, so called because of the appearance of the track after they had ‘flowered’, were the most effective means of derailing a train. |
4. slang. A bishop's mitre, or a figure of one.
| 1879 A. R. Ashwell Bp. Wilberforce I. iii. 66 note, I heard one of the fellows..say ‘No, It's not a Tulip’, meaning that there was no mitre on the panel [of the carriage]. |
5. attrib. and
Comb., as
tulip-bed,
tulip-bulb,
tulip-fancier,
tulip-field,
tulip-glass,
tulip-grower,
tulip-leaf,
tulip-mania,
tulip-time;
tulip-fancying,
tulip-like,
tulip-shaped,
tulip-tinted adjs.;
tulip-apple, a variety of apple with bright-coloured fruit;
tulip break(ing), the variegated colouring of certain tulip flowers, caused by a virus infection;
tulip choke (
cf. sense 3 and
choke n.1 4);
tulip ear, of a dog: see
quot. 1877; so
tulip-eared a.;
tulip fire, a fungus disease of tulips, caused by
Botrytis tulipæ and producing speckled, discoloured leaves and flowers;
tulip-grass, a name for several S. African poisonous herbs of the genus
Homeria (N.O.
Iridaceæ);
tulip-laurel, ? a species of
Magnolia;
tulip poplar = tulip-tree 1 (see
poplar 2);
tulip-poppy, a Mexican papaveraceous plant,
Hunnemannia fumariæfolia, with flowers like those of
Eschscholtzia;
tulip-root, (
a) the ‘root’ or bulb of a tulip; (
b) a disease of oats, characterized by a swelling at the base of the stem, caused by a minute nematoid worm;
tulip-shell, (
a) a bivalve of the genus
Tellina; (
b) any gastropod of the family
Fasciolariadæ, as
Fasciolaria tulipa. Also
tulip-tree, -wood.
| 1842 Loudon Suburban Hort. 529 The tree is still more beautiful when covered with fruit, especially with such as are highly-coloured, such as the red Astrachan, the *tulipapple, &c. |
| 1822 T. G. Wainewright in London Mag. June 552/2 A delicate Schiavone, various as a *tulip bed with rich broken tints. 1939 Joyce Finnegans Wake 526 Or tulipbeds of Rush below. |
| 1958 Manch. Guardian 28 May 6/3 These changes of colour are symptoms of the virus disease known as *tulip break. |
| 1929 U.S. Dept. Agric. Yearbk. 1928 596 (heading) Tulip ‘*breaking’ is proved to be caused by mosaic infection. |
| 1664 Evelyn Kal. Hort. June (1729) 208 Take up your *Tulip Bulbs. |
| 1884 Burgess Sporting Fire Arms 4 The sketches show the ordinary choke and the *tulip choke. |
| 1877 G. Stables Pract. Kennel Guide iii. (ed. 3) 36 *Tulip-ear.—Partly pricked, and drooping at the tip. Ibid. vii. §3 81 [Ears of Skye Terrier] may be pricked, or tulip. 1837 *Tulip fanciers [see 2]. |
| 1826 Scott Woodst. xxxiii, A *tulip-fancying fellow,..intended for a Dutch gardener. |
| 1969 G. Lyall Venus with Pistol vii. 38 Amsterdam was cold... Carlos told me..not [to] stop off to look at any *tulip fields. |
| 1931 Pamphl. Seale-Hayne Agric. Coll. XXXVI. 27 Several suggestions have been made as possible methods for the control of *Tulip Fire. 1976 Homes & Gardens June 131/2 Tulips are particularly susceptible to tulip fire; this produces malformed leaves and shoots, which wither and stop growing. |
| 1760 J. Lee Introd. Bot. App. 330 *Tulip-flower, Bignonia. |
| 1755 Gentl. Mag. Sept. 416/1 Several lacrymatories have also been dug up, some are of glass,..and some are of burnt earth, like our *tulip-glasses. 1952 M. Allingham Tiger in Smoke ii. 49 He was carrying two large tulip glasses which he had overfilled. 1976 D. Francis In Frame v. 83 When Jik opened the champagne he poured it into shining tulip glasses. |
| 1900 Blackw. Mag. Apr. 574/1 He has eaten *tulip-grass. |
| 1882 Pall Mall G. 18 Oct. 4 A Dutch *tulip-grower. |
| 1766 W. Stork Acc. East Florida 47 The magnolia, *tulip-laurel, tupelow-tree, are all beautiful. |
| a 1718 Prior Alma i. 381 But *Tulip-leaves, and Limon-peel Help only to adorn the meal. |
| c 1711 Petiver Gazophyl. ix. Tab. 85 Red *Tulip-like Flowers. |
| 1839 Penny Cycl. XIV. 314/1 The extravagances of those visited by the *tulip mania. |
| 1683 Lond. Gaz. No. 1810/4 Lost.., a Gold Pendulum Watch,..with..a Steel Chain, and *Tulip Pillars. |
| 1868 Rep. U.S. Comm. Agric. (1869) 99 Endecatomus rugosus..has been also taken under the bark of *tulip poplars. |
| 1909 Cent. Dict. Suppl., Hunnemannia..contains a single Mexican species, H. fumariæfolia, now somewhat cultivated under the name *tulip-poppy. |
| 1728–46 Thomson Spring 538 Then comes the *tulip race, where Beauty plays Her idle freaks. |
| 1711 Addison Spect. No. 108 ¶3 He carries a *Tulip-root in his Pocket. 1875 Encycl. Brit. I. 360/2 The oat frequently suffers much from a disease called ‘segging’ or ‘tulip root’. |
| 1833 Loudon Encycl. Archit. §190 Ornamental *tulip-shaped chimney-pots. |
| 1835 Kirby Hab. & Inst. Anim. I. viii. 265 The *tulip-shell (Tellina) when it walks,..opens and shuts its valves. 1861 P. P. Carpenter in Rep. Smithsonian Instit. 1860, 180 Family Fasciolariadæ. (Tulip-shells and Mitres). |
| 1954 L. MacNeice Autumn Sequel 41 Its *tuliptime and playtime. |
Hence (or from
mod.L.
tulipa)
tuliˈpiferous a. [
-ferous], bearing flowers like tulips, as the tulip-tree;
ˈtulipine,
Chem., a poisonous stimulant alkaloid obtained from the garden tulip;
ˈtulipist, a person devoted to the cultivation of tulips;
ˌtulipoˈmania [
-mania], a craze for tulips, as that which prevailed in Holland in the 17th c.;
ˌtulipoˈmaniac, one affected with tulipomania;
ˈtulipy a., abounding in tulips;
† n. a tulip.
| 1786 J. Abercrombie Arrangem. in Gard. Assist. 38/1 *Tulipiferous, or common tulip bearing [Tulip tree]. |
| 1909 Cent. Dict. Suppl., *Tulipine. 1913 Dorland Med. Dict., Tulipin. |
| 1658 Sir T. Browne Hydriot. Ded., The Ingenuous delight of *Tulipists. 1710 Addison Tatler No. 218 ¶7 A Person of good Sense, had not his Head been touched with..the..Tulippomania. 1842 Chamb. Jrnl. 12 Feb. 32/3 When the Tulipomania infected Holland, and single roots were sold for many hundred pounds. |
| 1842 Blackw. Mag. LI. 426 The prices of these roots..are enough..to delight the cupidity of a Dutch *tulipo-maniac. |
| a 1849 J. C. Mangan Poems (1859) 322 Shaarmal's *tulipy dell. |
| c 1626 W. Bosworth Arcadius & Sepha i. 882 That blood with wat'ry eye Which leaves her breast to turn t' a *tulippy. |
______________________________
Add:
[3.] c. ellipt. for
tulip-glass (sense 5 below).
| 1961 in Webster. 1980 Times (‘Countdown to Christmas’ Suppl.) 29 Nov. p. xiv/4 Fine wine is ideally drunk from a perfectly plain tulip or goblet. 1988 Los Angeles Times 24 Apr. (Calendar) 98/4 The wine glasses here are good-sized tulips (not elegant but very serviceable). |