[L., a. Gr. ἀκανθος, f. ἀκανθο thorn, f. ἀκή a sharp point.]
1. Bot. A genus of herbaceous plants (monopetalous exogens, N.O. Acanthaceæ). In popular use, the name is chiefly applied to the species A. spinosus, Bear’s Breech or Brank-Ursine, native to the shores of the Mediterranean, and cultivated in England, celebrated among the Greeks and Romans for the elegance of its leaves.
1616. Surflet & Markham, Countrey Farme, 203. Beares-breech, called of the Latines Acanthus.
1667. Milton, P. L., IV. 696. On either side Acanthus, and each odorous bushy shrub, Fenced up the verdant wall.
1842. Tennyson, Lotos-E., 142. The emerald-colour’d water falling Thro’ many a wov’n acanthus-wreath divine!
2. Arch. A conventionalized representation of the leaf of Acanthus spinosus, used in the decoration of the Corinthian and Composite capitals; said to have been modelled after the plant by Callimachus.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., Acanthus, in architecture, an ornament of the Corinthian and Composite orders.
1879. Scott, Lect. on Archit., I. 81. They assume an almost Classic form—the acanthus being freely used.
