Also 6–7 turnepe, (-eppe, -op), 6–9 turnep, (7 turnepp, turnup, turneupp, turneip, turnoop); dial. turmit, -at, -ut, tormit, tummit, etc. [In 16–17th c. turnepe, in 16–19th c. turnep, from c. 1782 turnip; the second element being NEEP, nepe, or nep, OE. nǽp, ad. L. nāpus navew, turnip (mentioned by Columella and Pliny); the first element is uncertain, but is generally supposed to be F. tour or Eng. TURN, referring to its rounded shape. There is no kindred name in other langs., except when evidently from Eng., as in Welsh and Irish.]
1. The fleshy, globular or spheroidal root of a biennial cruciferous plant, Brassica Rapa, var. depressa, having toothed, somewhat hairy leaves, and yellow flowers, cultivated from ancient times as a culinary vegetable, and for feeding sheep and cattle; also, the plant itself, of which the young shoots (turnip-tops) are frequently boiled as greens.
1533. Elyot, Cast. Helthe (1539), 25. Turnepes beinge welle boyled in water, and after with fatte fleshe, norysheth moche.
1562. Turner, Herbal, II. 113. The great round rape, called commonly a turnepe, groweth in very great plenty in all Germany.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XVIII. xiii. I. 571. The best Husbandmen … give order, That the ground for Turneps [L. napum] should have five tilthes.
1629. Parkinson, Paradisus, 508. There are diuers sorts of Turneps, as white, yellow, and red.
1672. Court-bk. Barony of Urie (1892), 92. Some people … did steall furth thereof turnepes and carrottis and uther rootis.
1759. in Q. Jrnl. Economics (1907), Nov., 78. In case of Wet Weather while the Sheep are at turneps they are to have the Liberty of Great Oxenden.
1764. in W. Wing, Ann. Steeple Aston (1875), 63. Agreed at vestry to sow Sandhill turnoops this next year.
1782. Barker, in Phil. Trans., LXXII. 282. A wet week in the middle did not greatly hurt the hay, and was very good for the turnips.
1839. Col. Hawker, Diary (1893), II. 168. I brought home 18 prime partridges and I lost another in the high turnips.
1863. Robson, Bards of Tyne, 315. We hev taties and turmits like Rosemary toppin’.
† b. spec. The spheroidal root itself. Obs. rare.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, V. xxxiii. 593. There is another kinde of Turnep or Rape…. His rootes or Turneppes are not white but red.
1765. J. W. Baker, in Museum Rust., V. 265. When the sheep have eaten all the leaves, and begin to eat the butts or turneps of this plant [turnip-cabbage], they will not rot as turnips do, when wounded.
c. app. = turnip-lantern: see 4 b.
1766. Lady Mary Coke, Jrnl., 30 Sept. (1889), I. 64. I told Lucy unless She cou’d produce more light I must go. She said She wou’d send for two turnips; ’twas all She cou’d do.
2. Applied, usually with defining word, to other species or varieties of Brassica; as Cabbage-t. or Hungarian t., the turnip-rooted Cabbage or Kohlrabi (B. oleracea gongylodes); French t. (a) the rape, B. Napus or B. campestris; (b) a variety of B. Napus, extensively cultivated in France and Germany, and much used as a flavoring for soups; Swedish t., B. campestris Rutabaga; Teltow t. = French t. (b); Wild t., the rape; see also b; Yellow t., a yellow variety of the common turnip.
1548. Turner, Names Herbs (E.D.S.), 55. Napus…. I haue hearde sume cal it in englishe a turnepe, and other some a naued or nauet. Ibid. (1562), Herbal, II. 112 b. Rapum … is called in English of them of the South countre, turnepe, of other countre men a rape.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, II. ii. 179. There be three sorts of wilde Turneps. Ibid. Wilde Turneps or Rapes, haue long, broad, and rough leaues like those of Turneps. Ibid., 180. Wilde Turneps or Rapes, do grow of themselues in fallow fields.
1600. Hakluyt, Voy. (1810), III. 288. We sowed it part with Naueaus or small Turneps.
1707. Mortimer, Husb. (1721), I. 157. Yellow Turneps … are commonly sown in Gardens, but are of very great advantage to be sown in Fields, not only for the use of the Kitchen, but for Food for Cattle in Winter.
1731–3. Miller, Gard Dict. (ed. 2), Napus, the Navew or French Turnip.
1760. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., App. 350. Turnep, French, Brassica.
c. 1791. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), VIII. 761/1. The ruta baga, or Swedish turnip, is a plant from which great expectations have been formed.
1796. C. Marshall, Garden., xv. (1813), 261. The most common [turneps] are the white sorts; but the yellow and red are worthy of trial. Ibid., 262. The cabbage turnep is of two kinds: one apples above ground, and the other in it.
1858. Hogg, Veg. Kingd., 67. B. napus is the … Rape or Coleseed…. There is a variety of this, called by the French Chou Navette, and by us French Turnip (B. n. esculenta), which is employed in flavouring all foreign soups.
1866. Treas. Bot., 167/2. The Teltow Turnip, or ‘Navet de Berlin petit’ of the French (B. Napus var.), is very different from any of our cultivated varieties of Turnip, its root being long and spindle-shaped.
b. Applied to plants of other genera having roots or tubers like those of the turnip, as Indian t., Lion’s t., Prairie t.: see these words; also St. Anthony’s t., the bulbous buttercup, Ranunculus bulbosus; Wild t. = Indian t. (in both uses).
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, II. iv. 182. Lyons Turnep [Leontice Leontopetalum] is of force to digest.
1856. A. Gray, Man. Bot. (1860), 94. Psoralca esculenta,… the Indian Turnip,… used as food by the aborigines. Ibid., 427. Arisæma triphyllum, Indian Turnip.
1866. Treas. Bot., 176/1. B[ryonia] dioica, the Common Bryony…. The root is used … as a purgative; but it is unsafe from its uncertain and sometimes violent action, whence the French call it Devil’s-turnip.
1894. Gibson, in Harper’s Mag., 565. The wild arum of Great Britain … the foreign counterpart of our well known jack-in-the-pulpit, or Indian turnip.
3. a. In slang phrases, sometimes with pun on turn-up. See quots.
a. 1596. Sir T. More, II. ii. Come, come; wele tickle ther turnips, wele butter ther boxes. Shall strangers rule the roste?
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., Turnips, to give any body turnips signifies to turn him or her up, and the party so turned up, is said to have knap’d turnips.
1845. Ford, Handbk. Spain, I. 27, note. This gourd forms a favourite metaphor in common parlance: ‘le ha dado Calabazas,’ she has refused him; it is the ‘giving cold turnips’ of Suffolk.
b. Siang term for an old-fashioned thick silver watch.
1840. E. FitzGerald, Lett. (1889), I. 59. An old turnip of a watch … on the table beside her.
1853. ‘C. Bede,’ Verdant Green, I. vi. His mechanical turnip showed him that he had no time to lose.
1903. A. Adams, Log Cowboy, xv. 234. My turnip says it ’s eight o’clock now.
c. Humorously applied to a person: cf. turnip-head, -headed in 4.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xxxiii. ‘But now,’ continued Sam, ‘now I find what a reg’lar soft-headed, inkred’lous turnip I must ha been.’
4. attrib. and Comb. a. simple attrib., as turnip-cart, crop, -culture, -drill, -farmer, -field, -husbandry, -leaf, -pit, plot, -root, -seed, -trough, etc.; also allusively, turnip-head, -heart, -pate, -watch; in names of things made of turnips, or in which the turnip is a principal ingredient, as turnip-bread, pasty, pie, poultice; objective and obj. genitive, as turnip-chopper, -cutter, -grower, -hoer, -picker, -puller, -pulper, -slicer, -sower, -thinner (freq. as names of machines); turnip-bearing, -cutting, -eating, -hacking, -sowing, -thinning, sbs. and adjs.; instrumental, parasynthetic, similative, etc., as turnip-feeding; turnip-fed, -headed, -leaved, -like, -pointed, -rooted, -shaped, -stalked, -stemmed, -tailed adjs.
1812. W. Tennant, Anster F., I. viii. Anster’s turnip-bearing vales.
1693. S. Dale, in Phil. Trans., XVII. 970. Of this *Turnep-Bread (for so they call it) I have both seen and tasted.
1763. Museum Rust. (ed. 2), I. 106. I baked my turnep-bread rather longer than the other.
1832. Veg. Subst. Food, 236. In … 1629 and 1630 … good … wholesome bread was made of boiled turnips,… kneaded with … wheaten flour,… called turnip-bread.
1664. Butler, Hud., II. Heroic. Ep. Sidrophel, 20. A Wheel-barrow, or *Turnip Cart.
1837. Brit. Husb., II. 246. The roots are commonly cut into pieces by an instrument called the *‘turnip-chopper.’
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 119. Much better instruments will be found in the two hand turnip-choppers.
1801. Farmer’s Mag., Jan., 107. The *turnip crop is probably the best … ever remembered. Ibid., Aug., 279. The soil … is not … of that stiff sort adapted to beans or wheat, but abundantly free, so as to be well adapted to *turnip-culture.
1837. Flemish Husb., 89, in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb., III. The roots were cut by a machine something like our *turnip-cutters.
1879. J. Wrightson, in Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 108/2. 1 bushel of swedes, cut small in a … turnip-cutter.
1854. Mary Howitt, Pict. Calend. Seasons, 17. There was a noise of straw-cutting and *turnip-cutting.
1733. Tull, Horse-Hoeing Husb., xxii. 328. The spring of the *Turnep-Drill being so very thin [etc.].
1805. R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., I. 17. Turnip-Drill … for sowing turnips on the tops of one-bout ridges.
1856. Morton, Cycl. Agric., II. 1026. The proper width of a turnip drill in Scotland seems … to be … twenty-seven inches.
a. 1668. Davenant, Vacation in Lond., Wks. (1673), 291. All these on hoof now trudge from Town, To cheat poor *Turnip-eating Clown.
1733. Tull, Horse-Hoeing Husb., x. 103. If Turneps be sown in June,… the most experienc’d *Turnep-Farmers, will have no more than Thirty to a square Perch left in Hand-hoeing.
1805. R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., I. Plate x. 40. A Scuffler employed … in putting in grain crops on *turnip-fed lands after one ploughing.
1812. Sir J. Sinclair, Syst. Husb. Scot., I. 354. If straw be economically applied in littering turnip-fed stock [etc.].
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 329. *Turnip-feeding was apt to breed wind in the sheep.
1773. Gentl. Mag., Dec., 618/2. In his distress he frequented a *turnep-field.
1812. Sir J. Sinclair, Syst. Husb. Scot., I. 39. Sheep-flakes, or hurdles, a sort of portable fence, well known to every *turnip grower.
1883. T. Hardy, in Longm. Mag., July, 267. A farm-woman’s occupation is often *‘turnip-hacking’—that is, picking out from the land the stumps of turnips which have been eaten off by the sheep.
1898. C’tess Warwick, ed., J. Arch’s Story of his Life, xiii. 322. The *turnip-headed farmer turned his back on us, and he has lived to rue the day when he did it.
c. 1620. Fletcher & Massinger, Trag. Barnavelt, II. ii. We are strong enough to curb ’em. But we have *turnop hearts.
1791. W. H. Marshall, W. England (1796), II. 283. Any woman … will, in one full season become a sufficient *Turnep hoer.
1886. T. Hardy, Mayor of Casterbr., i. A turnip-hoer with his hoe on his shoulder.
1733. Tull, Horse-Hoeing Husb., x. 102. The greatest Inconvenience, which has been observ’d in the *Turnep-Husbandry, is when they are Fed off late in the Spring.
1848. Hepburn in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, II. No. 6. 272. Turnip husbandry, and the cultivation of red clover, were introduced about 1740.
1766. J. W. Baker, in Compl. Farmer, s.v. Turnep, The upper side of the *turnip leaf, in its infant state, is very smooth, and on that part the flies always lodge.
c. 1711. Petiver, Gazophyl., Dec. ix. Tab. 81. *Turnep-leaved Cape Dandelion.
1766. Museum Rust., VI. 46. By this … production of the *turnep-like knob, together with its being perennial, this species of cabbage is distinguished from all others.
1905. Daily Chron., 14 July, 4/7. In Cornwall the fisherman home from sea, in the intervals of blowing the fire, blows himself out with *turnip pasty.
1813. Colombian Centinel (Boston), 1 Sept., 1/2. I cannot protect every man’s *turnip patch.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, *Turnep-pate, White or Fair-hair’d.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 40. The shells … were picked out of the ground with … a *turnip-picker.
1835. W. Howitt, in L’Estrange, Friendships Miss Mitford (1882), I. 267. A *turnip-pie fit in size to set on Arthur’s own round table.
1899. Crockett, Kit Kennedy, xxx. Kit only lifted the lantern and made for the *turnip-pits.
1670. Wood, Life, 2 June (O.H.S.), II. 194. Buried … in her garden … under a *turnip plot.
1887. Amer. Naturalist, XXI. 435. *Turnip-pointed red [beet].
1735. Burdon, Pocket Farrier, 29. The *Turnip Poultice will infallibly cure it.
1606. G. W[oodcocke], Lives Emperors, in Hist. Ivstine, L l v b. It rained wheat, *Turnup rootes, and pease in Slesia, which much comforted the poore people, in the extreamity of famine.
1733. Tull, Horse-Hoeing Husb., I. 5. A large Root … which … might have … extended near as far as the Turnep Roots did.
1727. Bradley’s Fam. Dict., s.v. Cyclamen, The German Cyclamens are rather *Turnep-rooted Plants than Bulbs.
1769. Chron., in Ann. Reg., 65/2. A premium for the cultivating … of … the turnip-rooted cabbage.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 651. The Red Beet…. The turnip rooted is an early variety with the roots round.
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, De la Navette, *turnop seed.
1621. Shuttleworths’ Acc. (Chetham Soc.), 250. Turneppe seede, iiijd.
1833. Ridgemont Farm Rep., 155, in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb., III. It was drilled with turnip-seed upon a limestone soil.
1788. Trans. Soc. Arts, VI. 231. A Model of a Cabbage and *Turnep Slicer.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 41. The … better plan of serving turnips to sheep … is to cut them into small pieces with a turnip-slicer into troughs conveniently placed for use.
1889. H. M. B. Reid, Galloway Folk, 42. A brand-new gaudily painted *turnip-sower.
1765. J. W. Baker, in Museum Rust., V. 270. I could not accomplish my *turnip-sowing earlier.
1786. Abercrombie, Arr., in Gard. Assist., p. vi. *Turnep-stalked, with the turnep above ground.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 29. The *turnip-stemmed cabbage or kholrabi. Ibid., 11. Fig. 213 represents the form of the *turnip store.
1875. Encycl. Brit., I. 321/2. *Turnip-Thinners…. A class of machines has been brought out, of which Huckvale’s turnip-thinner may be named as a type.
1905. Contemp. Rev., July, 97. [I] went down the cart-track to the *turnip-thinning.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 41. A simple form of *turnip-trough.
1898. Tit-Bits, 25 June, 245/2. Consulting his … *turnip watch to see if his daughters’ train was due.
1886. C. Scott, Sheep-farming, 77. A bad *turnip year.
b. Special combinations: turnip-aphid, -aphis, the plant-louse of the turnip, Aphis rapæ; turnip-beetle, the turnip-flea; turnip-cabbage, the turnip-stemmed cabbage or KOHLRABI; turnip-flea (also turnip flea-beetle), a minute shiny black leaping beetle, Haltica nemorum, which feeds on the young leaves of the turnip and other crucifers; its larva mines in the full-grown leaf; turnip-flower beetle: see quot.; turnip-fly, (a) = turnip-flea; (b) the turnip-sawfly, a hymenopterous insect, Athalia centifoliæ, the larva of which (turnip-nigger) feeds on turnip-leaves; (c) a dipterous insect, Anthomyia radicum, whose larva lives in the root of the turnip; turnip-gall weevil: see quot.; turnip-ghost, a simulated ghost or apparition of which the head is formed by a turnip-lantern; turnip-grass, Panicum bulbosum, used as hay in Texas, Arizona and Mexico, the stems of which have a bulbous base (Cent. Dict. Supp., 1909); turnip-greens = turnip-tops; turnip-jack = turnip-flea; turnip-land = turnip-soil; turnip-lantern, the hollowed rind of a turnip employed as a lantern; also as a term of abuse (Eng. Dial. Dict.); turnip leaf-miner, ? the larva of the turnip-flea; turnip-louse = turnip-aphis (Cent. Dict. Supp.); turnip-maggot, the larva of Anthomyia radicum (turnip-fly c) (Cent. Dict.); turnip-mutton, the flesh of turnip-sheep; turnip-nigger, the black larva of Athalia centifoliæ (turnip-fly b); turnip-oats, a crop of oats succeeding turnips; turnip-parsnip, a turnip-rooted parsnip; so turnip-radish; turnip-sawfly = turnip-fly b; turnip-sheep, sheep that have been fed on turnips; turnip-shell, a shell of the family Turbinellidæ, esp. of the genus Rapa (Cent. Dict.): turnip-sick a., of land: exhausted by successive crops of turnips; turnip-soil, soil suitable or used for turnip-culture; turnip-system, a system of crop-rotation based on turnip-culture; turnip-top (usu. pl.), the sprouting leaves of the second year’s growth of the turnip, used as a vegetable; turnip-tray, a hurdle used for penning sheep on turnip-land; turnip-wheat, cf. turnip-oats; turnip-wood, Australian rosewood, Synoum glandulosum (N.O. Meliaceæ), or its timber, which smells like turnips; see also quot. 1898.
1891. Cent. Dict., *Turnip-aphid…. Also *turnip-aphis.
1908. Westm. Gaz., 30 May, 7/3. The corn-aphis, hop-aphis, turnip-aphis, bean-aphis.
1816. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., xxiii. (1818), II. 312. When the *turnip-beetle (Haltica oleracea, F.) walks, its antennæ are alternately elevated and depressed.
1882. Garden, 25 March, 198/1. The Turnip fly (or, as the well-known insect should more properly be called, the Turnip beetle or flea).
1765. Ann. Reg., II. 146/2. The *turnep-cabbage is so called, because the stalk, after rising to some distance from the ground … swells suddenly into a roundish knob.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 627. The Turnip-cabbage, or turnip borecole,… is a dwarf-growing plant, with the stem swelled out so as to resemble a turnip above ground, but of a delicate green colour.
1867. Brande & Cox, Dict. Sc., etc., III. 881/2. The *turnip-flea belongs to a genus … of minute Coleopterous insects, of the section Tetramera, and family Galerucidæ.
1843. Zoologist, I. 371. The valuable Sweedish turnip [has] put forth its second pair of leaves, and just escaped the ravages of the turnip flea beetle.
1882. Garden, 25 March, 198/2. The *Turnip flower beetle … a very small, flat, bronzy green beetle.
1733. Tull, Horse-Hoeing Husb., xxiv. 391. By the shallow or deep [seed sown], the *Turnep-Fly is generally disappointed.
1765. J. W. Baker, in Museum Rust., V. 277. I discovered last season three distinct species of the turnip fly … one of them is black; it seems to hop like a flea.
1771. [see DOLPHIN 7].
1813. Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem. (1814), 217. The turnip fly … fixes itself upon the seed leaves of the turnip at the time that they are beginning to perform their functions.
1879. E. P. Wright, Anim. Life, 498. One of the best-known species [of Tetramera] is the so-called Turnip-fly (Haltica nemorum).
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, III. 781. The Curculio plurostigma, the *Turnip-gall weevil.
1863. Kingsley, Water-Bab., viii. (1864), 349. Out popped *turnip-ghosts and magic-lanthorns and paste-board bogies.
1858. Glenny, Gard. Every-day Bk., 247/2. They may give a few *Turnip-greens when they are very useful.
1873. Routledge’s Yng. Gentl. Mag., March, 229/1. The young and tender leaves, which are popularly called ‘turnip-greens.’
1801. Farmer’s Mag., April, 238. Almost every acre of *turnip-land has been sown with wheat, as fast as the grounds were cleared.
1844. E. FitzGerald, Lett. (1894), I. 163. You have seen a *turnip-lantern, perhaps.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, III. 778. A class of insects called *turnip-leaf miners.
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 335. Several butchers … agreed … that *turnip-mutton would be waterish.
1893. Daily News, 20 April, 6/2. The sparrow,… that brazen little thief who affects to despise wireworm, *turnip nigger, and gooseberry grub, but has the keenest of keen eyes for blossoming peas and delicate young wheat.
c. 1800. T. Blackadder in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, II. No. 12. 101. Your queys and stots, Hae trampled a’ my *turnip oats.
1786. Abercrombie, Gard. Assist., 81. *Turnep-radish—Sow the small white Italian sort.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, III. 772. The *turnip saw-fly, Athalia spinarum,… is denominated a saw-fly, from the use and appearance of the instrument with which it deposits its eggs. Ibid., II. 48. *Turnip-sheep are thus easily obtained at fairs in autumn.
1880. Jefferies, Gt. Estate, i. 6. Some of the land is getting *‘turnip-sick,’ the roots come stringy and small and useless.
1812. Sir J. Sinclair, Syst. Husb. Scot., I. 34. This ought more especially to be attended to upon all *turnip soils.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, I. 330. No kind of soil affords so dry and comfortable a lair to sheep on turnips, and on this account it is distinguished as ‘turnip-soil.’
1805. R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., I. 540. Another sort of this grain that may probably be cultivated to advantage in particular cases, as where the *turnip system is much practised.
1710. Swift, City Shower, 63. Dead Cats and *Turnip-Tops come tumbling down the Flood.
1848. C. C. Clifford, Aristoph., Frogs, 22. Don’t beat him with a leek or turnip-top.
1886. C. Scott, Sheep-farming, 44. Turnip-tops contain a considerable amount of nutritive matter.
1805. R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., II. 672. Sheep-penns or *turnip-trays made and fixed in such a way as to constitute a sort of moveable trough.
1807. Vancouver, Agric. Devon (1813), 164. This stubble as well as that of the lay and *turnip wheat is frequently refreshed with … dung.
1891. Cent. Dict., *Turnip-wood,… Synoum glandulosum.
1898. Morris, Austral Eng., Turnip-wood, the timbers of the trees Akania hillii,… N.O. Sapindaceæ, and Dysoxylon Muelleri … N.O. Meliaceæ, from their white and red colours respectively.
Hence Turnipology (nonce-wd.), contemptuous term for phrenology; whence Turnipologist; Turnipy a., like, or like that of, a turnip; pertaining to or connected with turnips; tasting of turnips.
1824. J. Wilson, in Blackw. Mag., XV. 711. Bad novels, which no human creature above the calibre of a *Turnipologist would now endure three pages of. Ibid., 150. The system … I mean *Turnipology.
1826. Scott, Jrnl., 29 Dec. The son … tampers with phrenology…. There is a certain kind of cleverish men … who are attached to that same turnipology.
1792–5. Aikin, Even. at Home, xxiii. (1805), V. 70. The reason why *turnipy milk and butter have such a strong taste.
1818. Sporting Mag., II. 229. His constitution is inclined to the turnippy sort, and … he will not stand through those lengthened … combats.
1853. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XIV. I. 72. Disagreeable turnipy flavour.
1873. Miss Broughton, Nancy, I. 70. My acquaintance is confined to half-a-dozen turnipy squires and their wives.
