(Also 7 erron. lutes.) Pl. lotuses. [a. L. lōtus, Gr. λωτός, the name of several dissimilar plants; it is not known whether the word in the various applications is etymologically identical; in sense 3 Herodotus speaks of it as Egyptian.]
1. The plant yielding the fruit which was the food of the LOTOPHAGI of Greek legend; represented by Homer (Od., IX. 90 ff.) as producing in those who ate it a state of dreamy forgetfulness, and loss of all desire to return home. Hence often allusively.
The Homeric lotus was identified by later Gr. writers with a North African shrub, the descriptions of which are thought by most naturalists to refer to the jujube-tree (Zizyphus Lotus), though other identifications have been proposed.
1540–1. Elyot, Image Gov., 39. Whan the Companions and seruantes of Ulisses had eaten abundantly of the herbe called Lotos.
1591. Spenser, Virg. Gnat, 193. And them amongst the wicked Lotos grew, Wicked for holding guilefully away Vlysses men.
a. 1600. T. Deloney, Thomas of Reading (1632), G j b. Then would I be like those men (that eating of the tree Lutes) forget the Country where they were borne.
1628. Le Grys, trans. Barclay’s Argenis, 182. What Lotos in Africa doth hinder thy returne hither?
1725. Pope, Odyss., IX. 106. Lotos, the name; divine, nectarious juice!
1773. Johnson, Journ. West. Isl., Wks. X. 400. At Dunvegan I had tasted lotus and was in danger of forgetting that I was ever to depart.
1832. Tennyson, Lotos-Eaters, 105. Eating the Lotos day by day.
1900. Contemp. Rev., July, 57. If it had all been Yalta, I could have eaten of the lotus for many a day, but Sebastopol is grim and grey [etc.].
2. A tree mentioned by ancient writers, distinguished by its hard, black wood, of which statues, flutes, etc., were carved; prob. the nettle-tree, Celtis australis. Also, the date-plum, Diospyros Lotus.
1551. Turner, Herbal, I. H vj b. Affryca … bryngeth furth an excellent tree called lotus,… the wood hath a black color and is myche desyred of men for to make pypes.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 99. The Larch and Lotus … deserve to be propagated for their rarity, excellent Shade, and durable Timber.
1760. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., App. 317. Lotus or Lote-tree, Celtis. Ibid. Lotus, supposed, of Homer, Diospyros.
3. The water-lily of Egypt and Asia, Nymphæa Lotus (and other species), and Nelumbium speciosum. b. Arch. An ornament representing the Egyptian water-lily: cf. lotus blossom, etc., in 6.
1584. Rich, trans. Herodotus, II. 92 b. In time of the floude … there arise in the water great plenty of lyllyes, which the people of Ægypt call Lotos.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 397. The Ægyptian Lotus … groweth in the marishes of Ægypt.
1785. C. Wilkins, trans. Bhagvat-Geeta, v. 58. Remaineth like the leaf of the lotus unaffected by the waters.
1859. Tennent, Ceylon, I. I. iii. 123. The chief ornaments of these neglected sheets of water are the large red and white Lotus.
1877. Longf., Kéramos, 286. The grand Osiris holding in his hand the lotus.
1883. V. Stuart, Egypt, 204. The blue and pink lotus of India.
1900. Max Müller, in 19th Cent., Nov., 732. After death the souls enter into the calyx of a lotus.
4. Some kind of clover or trefoil (referred to by Homer as food for horses). † Wild lotus, perh. Melilotus officinalis.
1562. Turner, Herbal, II. 42 a. Lotus syluestris that is called wylde lotus, which som call ye less trifoli, groweth in Libia.
c. 1611. Chapman, Iliad, XIV. 294. With his leaves did dewy lotus store Th’ Elysian mountain.
1682. Wheler, Journ. Greece, I. 3. Yellow Flowers … like those of wild Lotus.
1709. Addison, Tatler, No. 147, ¶ 4. While the Earth beneath them sprung up in Lotus’s, Saffrons, Hyacinths [etc.].
1820. Shelley, Hymn to Mercury, xvii. 6. When with rush-grass tall, Lotus and all sweet herbage, every one Had pastured been.
1842. Tennyson, Œnone, 96. And at their feet the crocus brake like fire, Violet, amaracus and asphodel, Lotos and lilies.
5. Adopted by botanists as the name of a genus of leguminous plants; hence in popular language spec. the Bird’s-foot Trefoil, Lotus corniculatus.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., The species of lotus, enumerated by Mr. Tournefort, are these. 1. The smooth hand cinquefoil lotus, called the smaller smooth horned lotus [and 22 others].
1813. Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem. (1814), 65. He was examining particularly a species of lotus.
1842[?]. Lance, Cottage Farmer, 9. Buckwheat, rye, tares, lucern, rape, white clover, trefoil, lotus; some one or other of these will grow readily in sandy land.
1865. Gosse, Land & Sea (1874), 7. The scarlet-tipped blossoms of the little bird’s-foot lotus.
6. attrib. and Comb., as lotus-blossom, -branch, -dust, -flower, -flute, -leaf (also attrib.), -lily, -pond, -seed; lotus-like adj.; lotus-headed, -leafed, -leaved, -paven, -petalled adjs.; lotus-berry, Byrsonima coriacea; lotus-bird Austral. (see quot.); lotus capital, -column Egyptian Arch., a capital or column ornamented with lotuses; lotus-grass = sense 4; lotus-land, the fabled land of the lotus-eaters; a land of ease and delight; lotus-tree = LOTE-TREE (Treas. Bot.).
1864. Grisebach, Flora W. Ind., 785. *Lotus-berry.
1890. Lumholtz, Cannibals, 22. The Parra gallinacea, which in Australia is called the *lotus-bird. It sits on the leaves that float on the water, particularly those of the water-lily.
1850. G. Wilkinson, Arch. Anc. Egypt, 7. The *lotus blossom, the papyrus head.
1834. [A. Prinsep], Baboo, I. xviii. 317. A piece of jewellery, representing a *lotus-branch.
1850. G. Wilkinson, Arch. Anc. Egypt, 47. The *lotus (or ‘full blown lotus’) capital. Ibid., 60. The full-blown *lotus column.
1832. Tennyson, Lotos-Eaters, 149. Round and round the spicy downs the yellow *Lotos-dust is blown.
1856. R. A. Vaughan, Mystics (1860), I. 228. The *lotus-flowers are not the Nile.
1833. Tennyson, Poems, 101. Melody o’ the Lybian *lotus-flute.
1820. Shelley, Œdipus, II. i. 63. In fresh dews Of *lotos-grass and blossoming asphodel.
1891. T. Hardy, Tess (1900), 87/2. The smoke … rose from the chimney … like a *lotus-headed column.
1842. Tennyson, Lotos-Eaters, 154. In the hollow *Lotos-land to live and lie reclined On the hills like Gods together.
1902. W. H. Hunt, in Longm. Mag., Jan., 214. He lived in ‘lotos land’—the Garden Isle of England.
1813. Coleridge, Night-Sc., 53. The God, who floats upon a *lotos leaf.
1865. J. H. Ingraham, Pillar of Fire (1872), 262. Majestic columns, with lotus-leaf capitals.
1852. R. S. Surtees, Sponge’s Sp. Tour (1893), 101. It cost a vast of money—fifty guineas! to say nothing of the *lotus-leafed pedestal it’s on.
1837. Penny Cycl., IX. 318/1. (Egyptian Architecture) The bell-shaped and *lotus-leaved capitals.
1800. Asiatic Ann. Reg., Misc. Tracts, 350/2. The dust of whose *lotos-like feet is holy.
1862. G. Wilson, Relig. Chem., 21. *Lotus-lilies sucked up from the Nile and exhaled as vapour the snows that are lying on the tops of our hills.
1877. Gosse, Rivers of Bible, 68. The sweet lotus-lilies that are set in porcelain vases.
1820. Shelley, Witch Atl., lix. *Lotus-paven canals.
1881. W. G. Palgrave, in Macm. Mag., XLV. 26. The same massive tree-like columns,… the same *lotus-petaled capitals.
1863. Alcock, Capit. Tycoon, II. 165. He found temporary refuge in a *lotus-pond.
1893. Earl Dunmore, Pamirs, II. 233. The favourite dish of a Chinaman, namely, *lotus seed.
