Forms: 5–7 lymon, 6 leman, lemonde, limone, pl. lemmanz, 6–7 lemmon, limmon, 6–8 limon, 7 leamon(d, leimon, lemond, 7– lemon. [ad. F. limon (now restricted to the lime; formerly of wider application) = Sp. limon, Pg. limão, It. limone, med.L. limōn-em, related to F. lime: see LIME sb.2 The words are prob. of Oriental origin: cf. Arab. laimūn, Pers. līmūn, Arab. līmah, collective līm, fruits of the citron kind, Skr. nimbū the lime.]
1. An ovate fruit with a pale yellow rind, and an acid juice. Largely used for making a beverage and for flavoring. The juice yields citric acid; the rind yields oil or essence of lemons, used in cookery and perfumery.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), xxi. 98. Þai enoynt þam … with þe ius of þe fruyt þat es called lymons.
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems (Percy Soc.), 15. Orengis, almondis, and the pomegarnade, Lymons, datez.
1533. Elyot, Cast. Helthe (1539), 45 b. The iuyce of orenges or lymons may be taken after meales in a lyttell quantitie.
1575. Laneham, Lett. (1871), 8. Poungarnets, Lemmanz, and Pipinz.
1594. Lady Russell, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. I. III. 46. I … drank … water and limmons, by Phisitions advise.
1645. Waller, Summer Islands, I. 6. That happy Island where huge Lemmons grow.
1660. Boyle, New Exp. Phys. Mech., ii. (1682), 79. I cut a Limon asunder and put both halfs into two Recievers.
1695. Congreve, Love for L., IV. xvi. Safer … than Letters writ in Juice of Limon, for no Fire can fetch it out.
1727–46. Thomson, Summer, 664. The lemon and the piercing lime … Their lighter glories blend.
1773. Goldsm., Stoops to Conq., I. ii. I’ll be with you in the squeezing of a lemon.
1838. T. Thomson, Chem. Org. Bodies, 459. Oil of lemons is extracted from the rind of the lemon.
1870. Yeats, Nat. Hist. Comm., 180. The scurvy has hardly been known in our navy since limes and lemons were ordered by law to be carried by all vessels sailing to foreign parts.
2. The tree (Citrus Limonum) that bears this fruit, largely cultivated in the South of Europe and elsewhere. Cf. lemon-tree in 7.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav. (1621), 3. Groues of Oranges, Lemonds, Pomegranates, Fig-trees [etc.].
3. With modifying word prefixed. Applied to plants of different families bearing a yellow fruit. Sweet lemon: the Citrus Lumia, cultivated in the South of Europe (Treas. Bot.). Water lemon: Passiflora laurifolia of the W. Indies. Wild lemon: (a) Podophyllum peltatum; (b) an Australian timber tree (Canthium latifolium).
1756. P. Browne, Jamaica, 328. The Water Lemon. It grows frequent in the woods.
1760. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., App. 317. Water Lemon, Passiflora.
1882. Garden, 25 Feb., 127/1. The flowers … are succeeded in May by oval yellowish fruits called wild Lemons.
4. The color of the lemon; pale yellow. More fully lemon-colo(u)r.
1796. Kirwan, Elem. Min. (ed. 2), I. 28. [Colours] Lemon or gold yellow—the purest.
1901. Speaker, 12 Jan., 396/2. The reds and lemons and greens of its [Upsala’s] houses … form a charming bouquet of colour.
5. attrib. and Comb. a. simple attributive, as lemon-bloom, -bush, -colo(u)r, -decoction, -flower, -garden, -grove, -hue, -juice, -kernel, -orchard, -peel, -pickle, -pip, -tea, -water; also of things flavored with oil of lemons or lemon-juice, as lemon-cake, -cheesecake, -cream, -ice, -pudding, -puff; b. instrumental, parasynthetic, and similative, as lemon-colo(u)red, -faced, -flavo(u)red, -scented, -tinted, -yellow adjs.
1820. Shelley, Fiordispina, 47. Rods of myrtle-buds and *lemon-blooms.
1884. Leisure Hour, Feb., 82/2. Entangled its long fleece in a thorny *lemon-bush.
1769. Mrs. Raffald, Eng. Housekpr. (1778), 269. To make *Lemon Cake.
1747. Mrs. Glasse, Cookery, xvi. 142. To make *Lemon Cheesecakes.
1598. Florio, Lemonino, a kinde of *lymond colour.
1707. Mortimer, Husb., V. xvii. (1708), 128. The Dyers use it [Weld] for dying of bright Yellows and Limon-colours.
1758. Reid, trans. Macquer’s Chem., I. 218. As soon as the Sulphur is melted it will sublime in *lemon-coloured flowers.
1747. Mrs. Glasse, Cookery, xvi. 143. *Lemon Cream.
1898. P. Manson, Trop. Dis., vi. 126. Crudeli speaks highly of *lemon decoction … as a prophylactic [for malaria].
1865. M. Arnold, Ess. Crit., v. 178. The unfortunate husband of that *lemon-faced woman with the white ruff.
1819. Shelley, Rosal. & Helen, 1250. Bowers, Of blooming myrtle and faint *lemon-flowers.
1864. M. J. Higgins, Ess. (1875), 188. The celebrated *lemon-gardens of the old principality.
1830. Tennyson, Recoll. Arab. Nts., 67. Far off, and where the *lemon grove In closest coverture upsprung.
1845. Budd, Dis. Liver, 125. A jaundice, bearing the lighter tints, from a sallow suffusion to a fainter or more decided *lemon hue.
1617. F. Moryson, Itin., I. 255. A little Greeke Barke loaded … with tunnes of *Lemons Juyce (which the Turks drinke like Nectar).
1709. Lond. Gaz., No. 4584/4. Also 11 pieces of Lemon Juice, neat, an entire Parcel.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., III. 19. We now can ascribe little or no therapeutic value to the lemon juice treatment first introduced by Owen Rees.
1731. Gentl. Mag., I. 40. Sow Orange and *Lemon-kernels in Pots.
1611. Florio, Limonáro, a *Lemmon hort-yard.
1875. J. H. Bennet, Winter Medit., I. i. 13. Even at Palermo … the lemon orchards are protected by walls.
1672. Wycherley, Love in a Wood, III. ii. 43. Warrant her breath with some *Lemmon Peil.
1694. R. L’Estrange, Fables, cxxxvi. (1714), 152. Never without Limon-Pill in her Mouth, to correct an unsavoury Vapour of her Own.
1790. Blackw. Mag., June, 815/2. His round face the colour of lemon-peel.
1769. Mrs. Raffald, Eng. Housekpr. (1778), 73. A tea spoonful of *lemon pickle.
1889. T. Hardy, Mayor of Casterbr., i. Grains of wheat, swollen as large as *lemon-pips.
1769. Mrs. Raffald, Eng. Housekpr. (1778), 309. To make a *Lemon Posset.
1852. Reade, Peg Woff. (1853), 194. He never failed to eat of a certain *lemon-pudding.
1769. Mrs. Raffald, Eng. Housekpr. (1778), 277. To make *Lemon Puffs.
1868. ‘Holme Lee,’ B. Godfrey, xliii. 234. A bushy *lemon-scented geranium.
1725. Watts, Logic, I. iv. § 4 (1822), 64. Tea … is now-a-days become a common name for many infusions of herbs, or plants, in water, as … *limon-tea &c.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., IV. 288. It is this pigment [urobilin] that causes … the *lemon-tinted skin.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, IV. v. If you want *limon-waters, Or anything to take the edge o’ th’ sea off, Pray speak.
1807. T. Thomson, Chem. (ed. 3), II. 417. An extraordinary portion of carbon gives … a *lemon-yellow colour.
1900. J. Hutchinson, Archives Surg., XI. 40. With his pallor was mixed a certain degree of lemon-yellow tint.
6. quasi-adj., short for lemon-colo(u)red. So in names of pigments, lemon cadmium, lemon chrome.
1874. J. D. Heath, Croquet-Player, 89. The finest vermilion, ‘drop black,’ and ‘lemon chrome,’ for red, black, and yellow respectively.
1882. Garden, 22 July, 64/3. The Evening Primrose covers the ground with large pale lemon flowers.
1886. York Herald, 7 Aug., 8/2. A Lemon and White Setter Dog.
7. Special combs.: lemon-balm, the Melissa officinalis (Syd. Soc. Lex., 1888); lemon-bird (see quot.); lemon-cutting, the feat of cutting in two a suspended lemon with a sword when riding at full speed; lemon-drop, a sugar-plum flavored with lemon; lemon-grass, a fragrant East Indian grass (Andropogon schœnanthus) yielding the grass oil used in perfumery; also attrib.; lemon-kali, a mixture of tartaric acid and soda bicarbonate, which when dissolved form an effervescing drink; lemon-plant (Aloysia citriodora), the so-called lemon-scented verbena; lemon-rob (see quot.); lemon scurvy grass, the Cochlearia officinalis (Mayne, Expos. Lex., 1855); lemon-squash, a drink made from the juice of a lemon, with soda-water, ice, and sometimes sugar; also a liquid preparation sold under this name for mixing with water; lemon-squeezer, an instrument for expressing the juice from a lemon; lemon-thyme, a lemon-scented variety of thyme; lemon-tree, (a) = sense 2; (b) = lemon-plant; lemon-verbena = lemon-plant; lemon-walnut, ‘the butter-nut (Juglans cinerea), so called on account of its fragrance’ (Cent. Dict.); lemon-weed = SEA-MAT; lemon-wood, a New Zealand tree, the Tarata.
1885. Swainson, Prov. Names Birds, 65. Linnet (Linota cannabina) … *Lemon bird (West Riding). A name given to those male linnets in the breeding season which have a yellowish hue on the breast.
1889. Daily News, 21 June, 6/1. In *lemon-cutting the most dexterous performers were [etc.].
1837. Royle, Ess. Antiq. Hindoo Med., 33. Andropogon Schœnanthus, or *Lemon-grass.
1859. Tennent, Ceylon (1860), I. 25. These sunny expanses … are covered with tall lemon-grass.
1887. Moloney, Forestry W. Afr., 423. An odour somewhat analogous to that of lemon-grass oil.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Lemon-kali, a drink made from citric and tartaric acid.
1862. Ansted, Channel Isl., IV. xxi. (ed. 2), 499. The Aloysia citriodora of botanists, the common *lemon plant, formerly called a verbena.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., *Lemon-rob, the inspissated juice of limes or lemons, a powerful anti-scorbutic.
1876. World, V. No. 115. 14. The orator sipped his accustomed glass of *lemon-squash.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Lemon-squeezer.
1884. Health Exhib. Catal., 110. Lemon Squeezers.
1713. J. Petiver, in Phil. Trans., XXVIII. 193. Its Leaves plain and small as *Lemon Tyme.
1573. Baret, Alv., L. 445. A *Limon tree, citrea.
1621. Lady M. Wroth, Urania, 302. They went into an Orchard beyond … the trees being Orange and Lemond trees.
1879. Britten & Holland, Plant-n., Lemon Tree, a frequent name for Lippia (Aloysia) citriodora Kth., in allusion to the scent of the leaves. The verbena.
1883. Wood, in Good Words, Sept., 603/1. Very few persons, if they were shown a gigantic octopus, an oyster, and a piece of ‘sea-mat,’ or *‘lemon-weed,’ could believe that they belonged to the same class.
1879. J. B. Armstrong, in Trans. N. Zealand Instit., XII. 329. The tarata or *lemonwood, Pittosporum eugenioides, a most beautiful tree also used for hedges.
