sb. Pl. fungi, funguses. Also 7 fungous. [a. L. fungus, commonly believed to be cognate with or ad. Gr. σφόγγος, σπόγγος SPONGE; in sense 2 prob. through OF. fungus (F. fongus).]
1. A mushroom, toadstool, or one of the allied plants, including the various forms of mold. In Bot., a cryptogamous plant, characterized by the absence of chlorophyll, and deriving its sustenance from dead or living organic matter. Also collect. in sing.
1527. Andrew, Brunswyke’s Distyll. Waters, E vj b. Water of fungus…. The beste parte and tyme be the whyte tode stoles or muscheroms whan they be full rype.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 132. Those excrescenses in manner of Mushromes, which be named Fungi.
1665. Hooke, Microgr., 115. Cork seems to be by … the pores, a kind of Fungus or Mushrome.
1694. Acc. Sev. Late Voy., II. (1711), 152. Like unto the Fungus that grows on Elder, which we call Jews-ears.
1804. Med. Jrnl., XII. 385. Case of Poison from a Vegetable Fungus.
1838. T. Thomson, Chem. Org. Bodies, 947. This black matter is a species of small fungus, which draws its nourishment from the wheat.
1847. Badham, Escul. Funguses, p. xiii. No country is perhaps richer in esculent Funguses than our own.
1882. Vines, Sachs’ Bot., 243. I shall … treat separately the forms which contain chlorophyll (so-called Algæ) from those destitute of chlorophyll (so-called Fungi).
b. transf. and fig. Often used fig. for something of rapid growth.
1750. Warburton, Julian, Introd. (1751), 45. Exsuding from her [the Church’s] sickly Trunk a number of deform’d Fungus’s.
1757. Foote, Author, II. Wks. 1799, I. 156. The offspring of a dunghill! born in a cellar … and living in a garret; a fungus, a mushroom.
1791. Paine, Rights of Man (ed. 4), 107. They began to consider aristocracy as a kind of fungus growing out of the corruption of society.
1862. Fraser’s Mag., Nov., 631. Nor, when criticising this architectural fungus [Exhibition Building], must its cost be forgotten.
187[?]. Spurgeon, Treas. Dav. Ps. lxxviii. 36. A mere unsubstantial fungus of unabiding excitement.
1881. G. W. Cable, Madame Delphine, i. 2. You see here and there, like a patch of bright mould, the stall of that significant fungus, the Chinaman.
2. Path. A spongy morbid growth or excrescence, such as exuberant granulation in a wound.
1674–7. Molins, Anat. Obs. (1896), 17. An old Man having a Contusion upon his Skin there threw out such Fungous that all the Escharotticks signified nothing.
1721. Bailey, Fungus [in Surgery], soft spungy, Flesh which grows upon Wounds.
1748. Hartley, Observations on Man, I. ii. 152. Bitters and Acids applied to Funguses of the Brain.
1804. Abernethy, Surg. Observ., 91. It is no uncommon circumstance to meet with wens, that have burst spontaneously, and have thrown out a fungus, which, like a foreign body, prevents the surrounding integuments from healing.
1844. Dufton, Deafness, 41. Sometimes small vegetations can be observed on its surface, and the commencing existence of polypus or fungus.
fig. 1711. Shaftesb., Charac. (1737), I. 248. The Comick Genius was apply’d, as a kind of Caustick, to those Exuberances and Fungus’s of the swoln Dialect, and magnificent manner of Speech.
b. A skin disease in fish.
1892. Daily News, 12 Jan., 5/4. Though the disease of the skin of fish known as ‘fungus’ is common … they never had a better supply of salmon in the river than at present.
† 3. An excrescence of lamp-black or charred fiber on the wick of a candle or lamp. lit. and fig. (So in Latin.) Obs.
1775. Fletcher, Last Check, § 18, Wks. 1795, VI. 243. Is a spiritual lamp trimmed when its flame is darkened by the black fungus of indwelling sin?
1813. T. Forster, Atmosph. Phænom. (1815), 150. The excrescence of fungi about the wicks of lamps and candles; the flaring and snapping of the flame.
4. The vegetable growth employed as tinder.
[1664. Evelyn, Sylva (1679), 27. Nor may we here omit to mention the … fungus’s to make Tinder.]
1831. Brewster, Nat. Magic., xiii. (1833), 320. The heat of the wire is always sufficient to kindle a piece of German fungus.
5. attrib. and Comb., as fungus disease (see 2 b above), growth, production, tree; fungus-covered, -like, -proof adjs.
1880. Burton, Q. Anne, III. xvii. 169. *Fungus-covered cabins.
1888. Pall Mall G., 3 Sept., 9/1. Fish affected with *fungus disease.
1826. Disraeli, Viv. Grey, IV. i. The Literature of the present day, a *fungus production which has flourished from the artificial state of our Society.
1887. Darwin, in Life & Lett. (1887), III. 348. He has been to a large extent successful, of raising *fungus-proof varieties of the potato.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, xxiii. *Fungus trees grew in corners of the cellars.
Hence Fungus v. intr., to grow out rapidly like a fungus; Fungused pa. pple., grown over or covered with fungus.
1841. Lytton, Nt. & Morn. (1851), 167. From that little boss has fungused out a terrible hump.
1862. The Saturday Review, XIII. 22 Feb., 209/1. So, in all its varieties, appears the Parliamentary bore, from the strong fiery article fresh from the fervid brain of the new member and incipient crotcheteer to the old tawny and colourless bottle of smoke from a celebrated cellar, cobwebbed and fungused with the dirt and dust of half-a-century of neglect.
