Thorn sb.

Forms: 1–3 ðorn, 1–5 þorn, (2 þeorn, 3 (Orm.) þorrn, 4 thorun), 4–5 þorne, 4–8 thorne, 4– thorn. [OE. þorn = OS. thorn (Du. doorn), OHG. dorn (MHG., G. dorn), ON. þorn (Sw., Da. torn), Goth. þaurnus, :—OTeut. *þurn-uz; :—Indo-Eur. *trnus: cf. OSlav. trŭnŭ thorn.]

  I.  1. A stiff, sharp-pointed, straight or curved woody process on the stem or other part of a plant; a spine, a prickle.

a. 800.  Cynewulf, Christ, 1445. Þa hi hwæsne beaʓ ymb min heafod heardne ʓebyʓdon … se wæs of þornum ʓeworht.

c. 950.  Lindisf. Gosp., Matt. xxvii. 29. Ða cempo … ymbworhton ða beʓe of ðornum, ʓesetton ofer heafud his.

c. 1000.  Ælfric’s Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 139/21. Spina, þorn. Ibid., 139/22. Tribulus, þorn.

c. 1200.  Trin. Coll. Hom., 207. He hadde … þornene helm, and þe þornes swiðe prikeden.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 17136 (Cott.). Þe thornnes o mi hede standes. Ibid., 17774 (Cott.). Wit thorns crund als was he.

1382.  Wyclif, Prov. xxvi. 9. If a thorun [1388 thorn] be growen in the hond of the drunken.

c. 1400.  Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 166. Of woundis of þornis.

1484.  Caxton, Fables of Æsop, III. i. As he ranne, a thorne entred into his foote.

1593.  Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., III. ii. 175. Like one lost in a Thornie Wood, That rents the Thornes, and is rent with the Thornes.

1667.  Milton, P. L., IV. 256. Flours of all hue, and without Thorn the Rose.

1671.  Grew, Anat. Plants, iv. App. § 1. Thorns are of two kinds, Lignous and Cortical.

1776.  Withering, Brit. Plants (1796), II. 104. Capsules,… awl-shaped, scored, tapering and ending in a double thorn or awn. Ibid., 350. Fruit-stalks forming bunches; thorns 3 together.

1867.  J. Hogg, Microsc., II. i. 324. Thorns, such as those of the rose, are aborted branches.

1880.  Gray, Struct. Bot., iii. § 3 (ed. 6), 55. A Spine or Thorn is usually … the termination of a stem or branch, indurated, leafless, and attenuated to a point.

Prov.  There is no rose witbout a thorn.

  2.  fig. (or in fig. context): Anything that causes pain, grief, or trouble; in various metaphors, similes, and proverbial expressions, as a thorn in the flesh or side, a constant affliction, a source of continual grief, trouble, or annoyance; (to be, sit, stand, walk) on thorns, (to be, etc.) in a painful state of anxiety or suspense.

c. 1230.  Hali Meid., 9. Ha lickeð huni of þornes: ha buggen al þat swete wið twa dale of bittre.

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Troylus, III. 1055 (1104). Ye, Nece, wole ye pulle out þe þorn [v.r. thorne] That stiketh in his herte.

1500–20.  Dunbar, Poems, xii. 14. Welth, warldly gloir, and riche array, Ar all bot thornis laid in thy way.

1561.  T. Hoby, trans. Castiglione’s Courtyer, II. (1900), 114. The poore gentilwoman stood upon thornes, and thought an houre a thousande yeare, till she were got from him.

c. 1580.  Jefferie, Bugbears, III. ii. in Archiv Stud. Neu. Spr. (1897). I sytt all on thornes till that matter take effect.

1602.  Shaks., Ham., I. v. 87. Those Thornes that in her bosome lodge.

1611.  Bible, 2 Cor. xii. 7. Least I should bee exalted aboue measure … there was giuen to me a thorne in the flesh [1526 Tind. vnquyetnes of, 1557 Gen. a pricke in the fleshe], the messenger of Sathan to buffet me.

1679–1715.  Burnet, Hist. Ref., II. I. 198. Her Unkles pressed the King to marry her to the Dauphin; for thereby another Kingdom would be added to France, which would be a perpetual Thorn in the side of England.

a. 1698.  Temple, Hist. Eng., 93. No Prince ever came so early into the Cares and Thorns of a Crown.

1768.  Earl Carlisle, in Jesse, Selwyn & Contemp. (1843), II. 316. I should have been upon thorns till you had wrote.

1775.  Sheridan, Rivals, V. i. Virtuous love … shall pluck the thorn from compunction.

1822.  Galt, Provost, xlv. The perverse views … of that Yankee thorn-in-the-side, Mr. Hickery.

1864.  Bryce, Holy Rom. Emp., xii. (1875), 191. The Eastern Church was then, as she is to this day, a thorn in the side of the Papacy.

1886.  C. E. Pascoe, Lond. of To-day, xxx. (ed. 3), 274. Not far from the grave of Elizabeth and Mary is that of the former’s thorn in life, Mary of Scotland.

  3.  a. A spine or spiny process in an animal.

c. 1300–.  [implied in THORNBACK 1].

c. 1711–56.  [implied in THORNY 1 b].

1860.  [see thorn oyster in 8].

  b.  Histology. (See quots.)

1899.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VI. 490. The dendrons are possessed of numerous minute lateral projections, gemmules, spines, or ‘thorns’ as they have been variously called. Ibid., VIII. 325. Dr. Alexander Hill believes the so-called ‘thorns’ to be organic structures, which are not shewn in their entirety by the chrome-silver method; and that a thorn is really the cell-end of an unstainable nerve filament, surrounded by a film of staining cell plasm.

  c.  pl. In Lace-making, Pointed projections used to decorate the cordonnet, etc., in point-lace.

1874.  Queen Lace Bk., I. 18. Little loops, knots, or knobs … called Pearls, Thorns, or Picots.

1882.  Caulfeild & Saward, Dict. Needlework, Thorns, used in Needlepoints to decorate the cordonnets and raised parts of the lace. See Spines.

  II.  4. A plant which bears thorns or prickles; a bramble or brier; a prickly bush, shrub, or tree; a thorn-tree or thorn-bush; esp. any species of the genus Cratægus; in England, spec. the Hawthorn or White-thorn (C. Oxyacantha).

  In early OE. þyrne wk. fem. :—*þurnjōn.

a. 700–.  [implied in HAWTHORN].

c. 725.  Corpus Gloss. (O.E.T.), 1834. Sentes, ðornas.

c. 888.  K. Ælfred, Boeth., xxiii. Swa hwa swa wille sawan westmabære land, atio ærest of da þornas & þa fyrsas & ꝥ fearn & ealle þa weod.

c. 950.  Lindisf. Gosp., Matt. xiii. 7. Oðro uutedlice ʓefeollon in ðornum … & woxon ða ðornas … & underdulfon ða.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Gen. iii. 18. Þornas and bremelas heo asprit þe.

1045.  Charter Edward, in Kemble, Cod. Dipl., IV. 98. On ðane greatan þorn ðe stynt wið Grimes dic.

c. 1200.  Ormin, 9219. Þurrh þorrness & þurrh breress Þær shulenn beon ridinngess nu.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 1334. Faste in ðornes he saȝ a sep.

1382.  Wyclif, Judg. ix. 14. And alle the trees seiden to the thorn, Com, and comaund thow vpon us.

c. 1450.  Godstow Reg., 34. Fowre burdyns of thornys of her wood of Cumnore.

1545.  Brinklow, Lament. (1874), 92. Do briers bringe forth figges, and thorns grapes?

1615.  W. Lawson, Orch. & Gard. (1623), Pref. Curious conceits … inoculating Roses on Thornes, and such like.

1750.  Gray, Elegy, 116. Grav’d on the stone beneath yon aged thorn.

1800.  Wordsw., Hart-leap Well, 33. Dismounting, then, he leaned against a thorn.

1866.  Treas. Bot., 344/2. The thorns [Cratægus] are natives of Europe, North America, and the temperate regions of Asia and Africa.

1882.  Garden, 24 June, 449/1. Thorns, white, pink, and crimson … have been very beautiful.

  b.  (without article). Thorn bushes or branches collectively; also, the wood of a thorn-tree.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 924 (Cott.). Brembel and thorn it sal te yeild. Ibid., 16437. Þai crond him wit þorn.

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 14. Sibriht,… Þat a suynhird slouh vnder a busk of thorn.

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. XII. 228. Þe pyes … þere þe þorne is thikkest … buylden and brede.

1508.  Dunbar, Tua Mariit Wemen, 15. Throw pykis of the plet thorne I presandlie luikit.

1592.  Shaks., Rom. & Jul., I. iv. 26. It is too rough, Too rude, too boysterous, and it pricks like thorne.

1615.  Chapman, Odyss., XIV. 17. The inner part … Which with an hedge of Thorn he fenc’t about.

1712.  Pope, Messiah, 73. Sandy vallies once perplexed with thorn.

Mod.  Thorn is a hard wood, and makes good cudgels.

  c.  fig. (or in figurative language). Sometimes alluding to the parable of the sower, Matt. xiii. 7.

a. 1340.  Hampole, Psalter, xxxii. 12. Full of thornes & brers of synnes.

1735.  Johnson, Lobo’s Abyssinia, Descr., i. 47. Little besides the Name of Christianity is to be found here, and the Thorns may be said to have choaked the Grain.

1819.  Shelley, Ode West Wind, 54. I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!

1850.  W. Irving, Goldsmith, xxxvii. 358. The thorns which beset an author in the path of theatrical literature.

  5.  With qualifying words used to distinguish species and varieties of Cratægus, and to designate various other thorny plants: as

  Aronia thorn, Cratægus Aronia; Buffalo thorn, Acacia latronum, an Indian tree; Egyptian thorn, Acacia vera, one of the trees which produce gum-arabic; Elephant thorn, Acacia tomentosa (Treas. Bot., 1866); Evergreen thorn, Cratægus Pyracantha, an ornamentai evergreen bearing a profusion of red berries in clusters during winter; Jerusalem thorn, Parkinsonia aculeata, a spiny shrub found in tropical regions; Mysore thorn, Cæsalpinia sepiaria, a leguminous plant; Spanish hedgehog thorn, some species of the genus Anthyllis. See also BLACKTHORN, BOX-t., BUCKTHORN, CAMEL(’S-t., CHRIST’S t., GLASTONBURY t., GOAT’S-t., HAWTHORN, LILY t., MOUSE-t., ORANGE t., PURGING t., SALLOW t., SCORPION’S t., WHITE-THORN.

1882.  Garden, 12 Aug., 145/3. The *Aronia Thorn … is a moderate-growing tree.

1866.  Treas. Bot., *Buffalo Thorn, Acacia latronum.

1731.  Miller, Gard. Dict., Acacia, *Egyptian Thorn or Binding Bean Tree.

1860.  Mayne, Expos. Lex., Egyptian Thorn,… Acacia vera, the gum-arabic tree.

1731.  Miller, Gard. Dict., s.v. Mespilus, The Pyracantha or *Ever-green Thorn.

1866.  Treas. Bot., 847/2. P[arkinsonia] aculeata, called in Jamaica the *Jerusalem Thorn.

1814.  Roxburgh, Hort. Bengal., 32. Cæsalpinia sepiaria, *Mysore Thorn.

1760.  J. Lee, Introd. Bot., App. 329. Thorn, *Spanish Hedgehog, Anthyllis.

  6.  (Short for thorn-moth.) Collectors’ name for various geometrid moths.

  Applied originally to species whose larvæ feed on the hawthorn or kindred plants.

1832.  Rennie, Conspectus Butterfl. & Moths, 105. Geometra (Leach)…. The September Thorn (G. erosaria). Ibid., 106. The Angled Thorn (G. angularia).

1869.  E. Newman, Brit. Moths, 57. The September Thorn (Ennomos erosaria).

  III.  7. The name of the Old English and Icelandic runic letter Þ (= th); named, like other runes, from the word of which it was the initial.

c. 1000.  Runic Poem, iii. (Gr.). Þorn byð þearle scearp.

c. 1400.  Maundev. (Roxb.), xv. 71. Þ and ȝ, whilk er called þorn and ȝok.

1885.  E. M. Thompson, in Encycl. Brit., XVIII. 160/1. The English letter thorn, þ, survived and continued in use down to the 15th century.

  IV.  8. attrib. and Comb. a. Attributive, as thorn-acacia, avenue, -bed (BED sb. 8), -cover (COVER sb.¹ 4), fence, -fire, forest, grove, -holt, jungle, kloof, -prick, -puncture, scrub, stick, -sting, thicket; objective, etc., as thorn-bearer, -eater; thorn-like, -proof, -resisting adjs.; instrumental, as thorn-bound, -covered, -encompassed, -marked, -pricked, -set, -strewn, -wounded, -wreathed adjs. b. Special combs.: † thorn-beak, the garfish, Belone vulgaris; thorn-bill, a humming-bird of the South American genus Rhamphomicron; thorn-bird, a South American bird, Anumbius acuticaudatus (allied to the OVEN-BIRD), which builds a large domed nest of thorny twigs (Webster, 1890); thorn-bit, ? a bit with a sharp projection that pricks the horse’s mouth; also fig.; † thorn-broom, (a) the petty whin, Genista anglica; (b) the common furze; † thorn-but [BUTT sb.¹], ? = THORN-BACK 1; thorn-catcher, a device attached to a bicycle or motor-car, to extract thorns and the like from the tire as the wheel rotates; thorn-devil, name of an Australian lizard, Moloch horridus; = MOLOCH 2; thorn-fly (also hawthorn-fly, thorn-tree fly), a kind of artificial fly; † thorn-garth, an enclosure protected by a thorn-hedge; † thorn-grape, the gooseberry; thorn-head (Webster, 1890), thorn-headed worm, one of the Acanthocephala, intestinal parasitic worms having the proboscis furnished with hooks or spines; † thorn-hog, a hedgehog; thorn-hopper, a tree-hopper, Thelia cratægi, which frequents thorny shrubs (Cent. Dict., 1891); thorn house, in salt-making by the graduation method, a structure in which weak brine is caused to trickle over piles or high walls of thorns and brushwood giving a large surface for evaporation; thorn-letter, the runic letter þ: = sense 7; thorn-lizard = thorn-devil; thorn-locust, the common honey-locust tree of N. America, Gleditschia triacanthos; thorn-moth = sense 6; thorn-mussel, a pinna; thorn oyster, popular name of bivalves of the family Spondylidæ, in which the older specimens have the lower valve spiny; also thorny oyster; thorn-quick, a young thorn-plant for a hedge; † thorn-rone, a brake or undergrowth of thorns; thorn-shell, a spiny shellfish; thorn-stone, a concretion deposited on the faggots in a thorn house (see quot. 1848); thorn-swine, a porcupine (Cent. Dict., 1891); thorn-tail, popular name of the humming-birds of the South American genus Gouldia, distinguished by a long pointed tail; thorn-tailed a., having a tail resembling a thorn, or with thorn-like processes; thorn-tailed agama, an agamoid lizard of the genus Uromastix, having the tail cased with rings of spiny scales; thorn-wall, in salt-making: cf. thorn house; thorn-wood, (a) a wood of thorns; (b) (thornwood) a South African tree (perh. Acacia Natalitia, the South African Wattle); also attrib. See also THORN-APPLE, THORN-BUSH, etc.

1570.  Levins, Manip., 207/6. A Hornbeak, fish…. A *Thorn-beak.

1894.  G. Allen, in Westm. Gaz., 8 May, 2/1. They [nettles] make a practice of sheltering themselves under … stouter and taller *thorn-bearers.

1844.  Stephens, Bk. Farm, I. 374. The ditch is thus marked out ready for the formation of the *thorn-bed.

1861.  Gould, Humming Birds, III. Pl. 188. Ramphomicron Ruficeps—Red-capped *Thorn-Bill.

1870.  Gillmore, trans. Figuier’s Rept. & Birds, 471. The Thornbills … are American birds.

1886.  Kipling, Departm. Ditties, etc. (1899), 90. The colt who is wise will abstain from the terrible *thorn-bit of Marriage.

1578.  Lyte, Dodoens, VI. ix. 668. Genistilla, Furze or *thorne Broome groweth in vntoyled places.

1597.  Gerarde, Herbal, III. xviii. 1140. In English Furze, Furzen bushes, Whinne, Gorsse, and Thorne Broome.

1668.  Charleton, Onomast., 149. Rhombus … Qui est vel Aculeatus, the *Thorn-but.

1736.  Ainsworth, Lat. Dict., The thornbut, Rhombus aculeatus.

1901.  Daily Chron., 1 June, 8/7. A great many punctures can be nipped in the bud, so to speak, by employing *thorn-catchers.

1850.  R. G. Cumming, Hunter’s Life S. Afr. (1902), 158/2. We halted … beside several acres of *thorn-cover.

1642.  Milton, Apol. Smect., v. Wks. 1738, I. 119. This obscure *thorn-eater of Malice and Detraction, as well as of Quodlibets and Sophisms.

1799.  G. Smith, Laboratory, II. 310. *Thorn-fly. Dubbing of black lamb’s wool [etc.].

a. 1340.  Hampole, Psalter lxxxviii. 39. Thou distroyd all his *thorne garthis.

1578.  Lyte, Dodoens, VI. xix. 681. Vua spina, whiche may be Englished, *Thorne grape.

1886.  Fagge & Pye-Smith, Princ. Med. (ed. 2), II. 234. An acanthocephalous or *thornheaded worm, Echinorrhynchus sp., has only once been certainly discovered in the human intestine.

1340.  Ayenb., 66. Þe *þorn-hog þet ys al ywryȝe myd prikyinde eles.

c. 1450.  Godstow Reg., 208. Half a rode of lond, liyng in the *thorneholte in the feldes of halso.

1866.  Tomlinson’s Cycl., II. 552/1. [At Moutiers] There are four evaporating houses called Maisons d’Epines or *thorn-houses.

1879.  G. Gladstone, in Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 353/1. Thorn houses … are gigantic erections consisting of a skeleton of timber filled in with thorn bushes … the water trickles down over the ends of the twigs.

1902.  Skeat, Athenæum, 22 Nov., 684/1. The words ‘that’ and ‘this’ and ‘the’ all begin, in the MS., with the usual *thorn-letter.

1899.  Cagney, trans. Jaksch’s Clin. Diagn., viii. 413. The resulting cultivation is marked with … *thorn-like processes projecting from it.

1860.  Wraxall, Life in Sea, vi. 143. The great *Thorn-mussel (Pinna) of the Mediterranean. Ibid., viii. 208. They [species of Spondyli] are distinguished by bright colours, but more especially by the long thorns and spurs with which they are covered, and for this reason they are also called *Thorn Oysters.

1858.  Chr. Rossetti, Fr. House to Home, 63. I felt no *thorn-prick when I plucked a flower.

1565.  Jewel, Repl. Harding (1611), 417. That *Thorn-prickt, Nail-boared, Speare-pierced, and otherwise wounded, rent, and torne Bodie.

1850.  Mrs. Browning, Poems, II. 239.

1908.  Daily Chron., 25 April, 9/5. A Beeston Humber bicycle, of roadster type, fully equipped with special *thorn-proof tyres and a metal gear-case.

1755.  Forfeited Estates Papers (S.H.S.), 92. [He] has raised … since 1740 no less than 1,676,147 *Thorn Quicks.

a. 1400.  Sc. Trojan War, II. 2437. And has bot one small hole but dout In-to þat *thorne-rone, richt secre.

1757.  Dyer, Fleece, I. 115. Haughty trees … that weaken *thorn-set mounds.

1860.  Wraxall, Life in Sea, viii. 209. A wondrously beautiful *Thorn Shell.

1857.  Hughes, Tom Brown, I. ii. A stout *thorn stick in his hand.

1848.  Knapp’s Chem. Technol., I. 266. The thorns become gradually covered with a thick coating (*thorn-stone), consisting of carbonates of lime, magnesia, manganese, and protoxide of iron.

1885.  C. G. W. Lock, Workshop Receipts, Ser. IV. 153/1. [The fagots] have to be changed every 2 years or so, on account of a deposit of calcium carbonate (‘thornstone’) which coats them.

1783.  Latham, Gen. Syn. Birds, IV. 463. *Thorn-tailed Warbler…. Inhabits Terra del Fuego.

1888.  Cassell’s Encycl. Dict., s.v. Uromastix, Thorn-tailed Agamas … from the south of Russia … and Central India.

1866.  Tomlinson’s Cycl., II. 554/1. The Saxon method of graduation by the use of *thorn-walls.

1850.  R. G. Cumming, Hunter’s Life S. Afr. (1902), 147/1. Reducing with adzes a *thornwood tree, which was to serve as a beam.

1863.  W. C. Baldwin, Afr. Hunting, vi. 148. A beautiful country of dense thornwood.

1819.  Shelley, Prometh. Unb., I. 598. Let that *thorn-wounded brow Stream not with blood.