Forms: 6 laborynth, lab(e)rinth, -irinth, 6–7 -arinth, 7 -erinth, -irynth, -orynth, 7–8 poet. lab’rinth, 6– labyrinth. [ad. L. labyrinth-us, a. Gr. λαβύρινθ-ος, of unknown (prob. non-Hellenic) origin. Cf. F. labyrinthe (1418 in Hatz.-Darm.).]
1. A structure consisting of a number of intercommunicating passages arranged in bewildering complexity, through which it is difficult or impossible to find one’s way without guidance; a maze.
a. With references to the structures so named in classical antiquity.
[1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), I. 9. Þis matir, as laborintus, Dedalus hous, haþ many halkes and hurnes … wyndynges and wrynkelynges.
1494. Fabyan, Chron., VII. ccxxxviii. 277. This house, after some wryters, was named, labor intus or Deladus (v.r. Labyrinthus or Dedalus) werke.]
1549. Compl. Scotl., vi. 64. Dedalus maid the laborynth to keip the monstir minotaurus.
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., V. iii. 188. Thou mayest not wander in that Labyrinth, There Minotaurs and vgly Treasons lurke.
1591. Spenser, Ruins of Rome, 22. Crete will boast the Labyrinth.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 99. The Labyrinth built vp in the lake of Mœris without any iot of timber to it. Ibid., II. 578. This Labyrinth in Crete is counted the second to that of Ægypt: the third is in the Isle Lemnos: the fourth in Italy.
1836. Thirlwall, Greece, II. xii. 112. Theodorus,… the builder of the Lemnian labyrinth.
b. In mod. landscape gardening, a maze formed by paths bordered by high hedges.
1611. Coryat, Crudities, 298. I sawe a fine Labyrinthe made of boxe.
1666. Pepys, Diary, 25 June. Here were also great variety of other exotique plants, and several labyrinths.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., Labyrinths are only proper for large gardens, and the finest in the world is said to be that of Versailles.
1792. A. Young, Trav. France, 7. The labyrinth [at Chantilly] is the only complete one I have seen, and I have no inclination to see another: it is in gardening what a rebus is in poetry.
2. transf. An intricate, complicated or tortuous arrangement (of physical features, buildings, etc.).
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 465. A mazey laberynth of small veines and arteries.
1634. Milton, Comus, 277. Co. What chance good Lady hath bereft you thus? La. Dim darknes, and this leafy Labyrinth.
1730–46. Thomson, Autumn, 415. The scented dew Betrays her [sc. a hare’s] early labyrinth.
1777. Watson, Philip II. (1793), II. XIII. 133. Leyden lies … in the midst of a labyrinth of rivulets and canals.
1778. Robertson, Hist. Amer., I. II. 122. He was entangled in a labyrinth, formed by an incredible number of small islands.
1843. Lytton, Last of Barons, I. iv. 56. He suddenly halted … to find himself entangled in a labyrinth of scattered suburbs.
1873. Symonds, Grk. Poets, xii. 400. The labyrinth of peristyles and pediments in which her children dwell.
† b. Rushy labyrinth = Gr. ἐκ σχοίνων λαβύρινθος (Theocritus), applied to a bow-net of rushes. Obs.–1
1658. Sir T. Browne, Gard. Cyrus, ii. 42. The rushy labyrinths of Theocritus.
c. (a) Metallurgy. A contrivance of winding channels used for distributing and separating the ores in the order of the coarseness of grain. (b) A chamber of many turnings for the condensation of fumes arising from dry distillation, etc. (Knight, Dict. Mech., 1875).
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, etc., Labyrinth, in metallurgy, means a series of canals distributed in the sequel of a stamping-mill; through which canals a stream of water is transmitted for suspending, carrying off, and depositing, at different distances, the ground ores.
3. Anat. A complex cavity hollowed out of the temporal bone consisting of a bony capsule (osseous labyrinth) and a delicate membranous apparatus (membranous labyrinth) contained by it; the internal ear. In birds, ‘the membranous capsule which encloses the end-organs of the auditory nerve’ (Newton, Dict. Birds, 1893, 180).
1696. Phillips (ed. 5), Labyrinth … In Anatomy, the Third Cavity in the innermost part of the Ear, resembling the Shell of a Snail.
1709. Blair, in Phil. Trans., XXVII. 125. I search’d for the Labyrinth, or Lineæ Semilunares, but could find none.
1722. Quincy, Lex. Physico-Med. (ed. 2), 126/2. The Labyrinth is made of three Semicircular Pipes, above half a Line wide, excavated in the Os Petrosum.
1840. G. V. Ellis, Anat., 290. There is … a fluid … contained in the osseous labyrinth, and in it the membranous labyrinth floats.
1873. Mivart, Elem. Anat., ix. 393. A labyrinth composed of three semicircular canals is also almost universal.
b. Applied to other organs of complex or intricate structure (see quots.).
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., Birds, I. i. (1824), II. 214. It is sometimes also seen that the wind-pipe makes many convolutions within the body of the bird, and it is then called the labyrinth.
1888. Syd. Soc. Lex., Labyrinth, a name given to the cells in the lateral masses of the ethmoid bone…. L., ethmoïdal, the irregularly divided space formed by the anterior, middle and posterior cells of the ethmoid bone…. L., olfactory, the contorted structure formed by the upper end of the middle turbinate bones.
4. fig. A tortuous, entangled or inextricable condition of things, events, ideas, etc.; an entanglement, maze.
1548. Hall, Chron., Rich. III., 47. When the Earle was thus … escaped all ye daungerous labirinthes and snares that were set for him.
1571. Digges, Pantom., I. xxx. K b. The Geometer … without practise … shall fall into manyfoulde errours, or inextricable Laberinthes.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., II. iii. 2. How now Thersites? what lost in the Labyrinth of thy furie?
1622. Malynes, Anc. Law-Merch., 211. All will run into a Laborinth and confusion.
1642. Sir E. Dering, Sp. on Relig., xvi. 24. We shall run our selves into a … Labyrinth of words, and lose the matter.
1756. Burke, Vind. Nat. Soc., Wks. 1842, I. 17. The more deeply we penetrate into the labyrinth of art, the further we find ourselves from those ends for which we entered it.
1816. T. L. Peacock, Headlong Hall, v. Unravelling the labyrinth of mind.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, i. He found himself … involved in the labyrinth of mercantile concerns without the clew of knowledge necessary for his extraction.
1823. Lamb, Elia, Ser. I. South-Sea Ho. She traced her descent, by some labyrinth of relationship … to the illustrious, but unfortunate, house of Derwentwater.
1828. Macaulay, Ess., Hallam (1851), I. 53. In this labyrinth of falsehood and sophistry the guidance of Mr. Hallam is peculiarly valuable.
1876. Mozley, Univ. Serm., iv. 92. Even in the dark labyrinth of evil there are unexpected outlets.
1885. Law Times, LXXIX. 130/1. To thread the labyrinth of the statutes under which London is governed.
5. attrib. and Comb., as labyrinth cave, thread; labyrinth-like, -stemmed adjs.; labyrinth fret Arch. (see quot.); labyrinth vesicle Anat., a cavity or furrow in the labyrinth of the ear.
1817. Shelley, Rev. Islam, VIII. xi. From slavery and religion’s *labyrinth caves Guide us.
1842–59. Gwilt, Archit., Gloss., *Labyrinth Fret, a fret, with many turnings, in the form of a labyrinth.
1851. Penrose, Athen. Arch., 56. The labyrinth fret beneath the mutules.
1622. Drayton, Poly-olb., XXII. 22. In *Labrinth-like turnes, and twinings intricate.
1855. Richardson, Geol., 302. The labyrinth-like arrangement of the dentine, from which Professor Owen derived the name Labyrinthodon.
1860. Ruskin, Mod. Paint., V. IX. iv. 240. Its forests are sombre-leaved, *labyrinth-stemmed.
1823. in Joanna Baillie, Collect. Poems, 216. Life’s *labyrinth-thread deceives, and seems but sand.
1878. Bell, trans. Gegenbaur’s Comp. Anat., 44. The *labyrinth-vesicles of the Vertebrata.
