Pl. ǁ fuci; also 7–8 fucus(s)es, 7 fucus’s, fucos, fucu’s; also anglicized β. fukes. [a. L. fūcus rock-lichen, red dye, rouge, false color: cf. Gr. φῦκος (neut.).]
† 1. Paint or cosmetic for beautifying the skin; a wash or coloring for the face. Frequent in 17th c. writers. Obs.
α. 1599. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Rev., V. ii. What are the ingredients to your fucus?
1607. Dekker, Westw. Hoe, Wks. 1873, II. 285. Heere is burned powder of a Hogs Iaw-bone, to be laide with the Oyle of white Poppy, an excellent Fucus to kill Morphew, weede out Freckles, and a most excellent ground-worke for painting.
1672. Cave, Prim. Chr., II. iii. (1673), 66. Leaving fucus’s and paintings, and living pictures, and fading beauty to those that belong to Playes and Theatres.
1675. Cocker, Morals, 59. Virtue hates Fucos, Patches and perfumes.
a. 1711. Ken, Urania, Poet. Wks. 1721, IV. 496.
| The loathsome Fucus I suck’d in, | |
| Which fill’d and glaz’d her furrow’d Skin. |
1757. Phil. Trans., L. 76. Bella-donna … came into credit as a fucus among the Italian ladies.
β. 1600. Surflet, Countrie Farme, III. lxix. 592. These compound waters are … for fukes and painting, as ornaments to the body.
1601. Holland, Pliny (1634), Words of Art. Fukes, paintings, to beautify the face in outward appearance.
† b. fig. Obs.
1640. J. Hollis, in Rushw., Hist. Coll., III. (1692), I. 168. Whatsoever Fucus or Artifice they be slighted over with, I do not like their Countenance.
1681–6. J. Scott, Chr. Life, III. (1696), 390. God … sees through all the Dawbings and Fucu’s of Hypocrisie.
1701. Collier, M. Anton. (1726), 155. Pull off its mask and fucus, and view it in its naked essence.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., VIII. 462. Of fortune’s fucus strip them, yet alive.
β. 1657. Reeve, God’s Plea, 108. If not a Penitent, what will all his Church tinctures do him good? No, Jerusalem had all these fukes to Admiration.
† c. gen. Any dye or coloring. Obs.
1676. R. Dixon, Nat. two Test., 2. To give Poyson a gusto of Honey, and colour over a Leaden Cause with a Fucus of Gold.
1698. J. Fryer, A New Account of East-India and Persia, 332. We having yet but lightly turned up the Glebe, have hardly given the Potter his handful of White Marle to form into Vessels without Fucus, deservedly challenging the Superiority.
2. A genus of seaweeds with flat leathery fronds. Formerly applied more widely.
1716. Derham, Phys. Theol., X. 415, note. The first that discovered the Seeds in Fuci, was the before commended Dr. Tancred Robinson.
1756. Gentl. Mag., XXVI. 63. The whole rock … was covered with that curious kind of fucus.
1778. Lightfoot, Flora Scotica (1789), 996. Upon rocky shores, in basons of water left by the tides, and often adhering to Fucuses.
1813. Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem. (1814), 282. By digesting the common fucus, which is the sea weed usually most abundant on the coast, in boiling water, I obtained from it one-eighth of a gelatinous substance which had characters similar to mucilage.
1838. T. Thomson, Chem. Org. Bodies, 945. Laminaria digitata. This fucus is olive-coloured.
1857. J. G. Wood, Com. Obj. Sea Shore, 30. The slimy and slippery fuci make the rock-walking exceedingly dangerous.
Hence Fucused ppl. a., beautified with paint, painted (also fig.); Fucusing vbl. sb.
a. 1680. Earl of Rochester, in D’Urfey’s Pills (1719), III. 343. With butter’d Hair, and fucus’d Breast.
1681. Glanvill, Sadducismus, II. (ed. 2), 34. How did the Jugglers do this with Painting and Fucussing.
1684. Phillips, trans. Plutarch’s Mor. (1691), III. VII. 199. The Sibyl … uttering Sentences altogether thoughtful and serious, neither fucus’d nor perfum’d.
1855. Kingsley, Westw. Ho! (1861), 180. A painted, patched, fucused, perriwigged, bolstered, Charybdis.
