[In sense 1, a translation of the OF. name ne m’oubliez mye, whence late MHG. vergiz mîn niht (mod.Ger. vergisz mein nicht), Sw. förgäta mig ej. In the 15th c. the flower was supposed to have the virtue of ensuring that those wearing it should never be forgotten by their lovers. (See quots. in Grimm Wb. s.v.) The application of the name to the ground-pine (sense 3) is app. exclusively Eng.; whether this plant was credited with the same magical properties as its namesake, or whether it was named ‘on account of the nauseous taste that it leaves in the mouth’ (Prior) is not ascertained.]
1. The name of various kinds of Myosotis, esp. M. palustris, a plant which flourishes in damp or wet soil, having bright blue flowers with a yellow eye. Also applied to the closely resembling species, M. azorica, M. arvensis, and others.
c. 1532. Dewes, Introd. Fr., in Palsgr., 1024. A flour of forget me nat, une fleur de ne moubliez mye.
1817. Coleridge, Sibyll Leaves, Keep-sake, 10.
| Nor can I find, amid my lonely walk | |
| By rivulet, or spring, or wet road-side, | |
| That blue and bright-eyed floweret of the brook, | |
| Hope’s gentle gem, the sweet FORGET-ME-NOT! |
1833. Tennyson, Poems, The Miller’s Daughter, 46.
| With roguish laughter fret me not | |
| From dewy eyes, like April skies, | |
| That ever look, ‘forget me not,’ | |
| Blue as the blue forget-me-not. |
1840. Agnes Strickland, Queens Eng., III. 84. This royal adventurer, the banished and aspiring Lancaster, appears to have been the person who gave to the myosotis arvensis, or, ‘forget-me-not,’ its emblematic and poetic meaning.
1880. Ouida, Moths, III. xxiv. 216. He lingered an instant, then he laid on her knee some forget-me-nots he had gathered in the brooks above, and left her.
b. Applied with qualifying words to other varieties of Myosotis (see quots.).
1865. Gosse, Land & Sea (1874), 235. And here, prettiest and tiniest of all, is the early scorpion-grass or hill forget-me-not, its slender stalks set with successive blossoms, all of which have the hues common to this bright-eyed and ever-welcome tribe, azure-blue with a yellow centre, except the terminal flower, and this is wholly yellow.
1867. Sowerby, Eng. Bot., VII. 102. Alpine Forget-me-not, M. alpestris. Ibid. Creeping water Forget-me-not, M. repens. Ibid., 106. Dwarf Forget-me-not, M. collina. Ibid., 104. Wood Forget-me-not, M. sylvatica. Ibid., 108. Yellow and blue Forget-me-not, M. versicolor.
2. The Germander Speedwell (Veronica Chamædrys). [So also in German writers of 15–16th c.]
1853. G. Johnston, Nat. Hist. E. Bord., I. 151. Veronica chamædrys … often miscalled the Forget-me-not, albeit its ephemeral and deciduous blossoms are not false types of that friendship which the world swears shall be life-lasting.
† 3. The Ground Pine (Ajuga Chamæpitys).
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, I. xviii. 28. Of Ground Pyne … There be three sortes … called … in English also Chamæpitys, Ground Pyne, Herbe Iue, Forget me not.
1597. Gerard, Herball, II. cxlii. § 3. 422. Ground Pine is called in English herbe Iuie, Forget me not.
4. attrib. and Comb., as forget-me-not blue, eyes; forget me-not-hued adj.
a. 1877. Ouida, Tricotrin, I. 522. The treacherous, murderous glitter in her forget-me-not-hued eyes grew colder and more brilliant.
1887. J. A. Sterry, Lazy Minstr. (1892), 148.
| I see drifting by such a smart little crew, | |
| Bedight in most delicate colours, | |
| In ivory-white and forget-me-not blue— | |
| A couple of pretty girl-scullers. | |
| Ibid., 174. | |
| The river’s like glass— | |
| As slowly I pass, | |
| This sweet little lass, | |
| Raises two | |
| Forget-me-not eyes, | |
| In laughing surprise— | |
| From canoe. |
1894. Daily News, 22 June, 6/6. Dressed in forget-me-not blue chené silk.
