the name of the capital of England, used attrib. in various special collocations: † London black, † London blue, names for some particular colors of cloth; † London bushel, perhaps the same as the Winchester bushel (according to Fitzherbert it was smaller than that used in the north); † London button(s, the foxglove; London clay, an important geological formation, belonging to the lower division of the Eocene tertiary, in the south-east of England and esp. at and near London; London ivy, a fanciful name for (a) the smoke of London, which ‘clings’ to buildings and blackens them, (b) a thick London fog; London lady, a kind of potato; † London measure, a former practice of London drapers of allowing something above the standard yard in their measurements; London particular colloq., a London fog; London paste, a caustic composed of equal parts of quicklime and caustic soda mixed with alcohol (Syd. Soc. Lex., 1889); London purple, a by-product in the manufacture of aniline dyes, consisting mainly of calcium arsenite, used as an insecticide; † London red, name for a particular color of cloth; London rocket, the plant Sisymbrium Irio, which (according to Ray) sprang up abundantly on the ruins of the great fire of 1666; † London russet, † London scarlet, names for particular colors of cloth; London smoke, a fancy name for a dull shade of grey; London sugar, a variety of pear; † London tuft, Sweet William = LONDON PRIDE a.
c. 1530. So well ys me be-gone, in Laneham’s Let., Pref. (1871), 130. His hoysse of *london black.
1625. Massinger, New Way, IV. i. One part skarlet, And the other *London-blew.
c. 1450. Bk. Curtasye, 626, in Babees Bk. Of a *lunden buschelle he shalle bake xx louys.
1523. [see BUSHEL sb.1 1].
1552. Elyot, Dict., Baccharis apud Ruellium, is supposed to be the flower called *London button.
1611. Cotgr., Gantelée, the hearbe called Fox-gloues … and London buttons.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 152. From the *London clay we have procured three or four hundred species of testacea.
1852. Dickens, Bleak Ho., x. Smoke, which is the *London ivy, had so wreathed itself round Peffer’s name,… that the affectionate parasite quite overpowered the parent-tree.
1889. Sporting Life, 4 Jan. (Farmer). A very severe cold caught by nine hours’ contact with London ivy.
1780. A. Young, Tour Irel. (1892), I. 306. Of other sorts of potatoes, he finds the *London lady and the apple to be the best sorts.
1647. Ward, Simp. Cobler, 25. Whatever Christianity or Civility will allow, I can afford with *London measure.
a. 1652. Brome, Covent Gard., Prol. ’Tis not in Book, as Cloth; we never say Make London-measure, when we buy a play.
1852. Dickens, Bleak Ho., iii. ‘This is a *London particular.’ I had never heard of such a thing. ‘A fog, miss,’ said the young gentleman.
1889. Science, 24 May, 394/2. The supply of powder can be regulated to such a nicety, that Mr. Leggett claims he can make half a pound of *London purple cover an acre.
1894. Times, 16 Aug., 6/2. Paris green or London purple.
1566. A. Edwards, in Hakluyt’s Voy. (1599), I. 357. Your *London reds are not to be sent hither.
1837. Macgillivray, Withering’s Brit. Plants (ed. 4), 269. S[isymbrium] Irio, *London Rocket.
1566. A. Edwards, in Hakluyt’s Voy. (1599), I. 358. I wore a garment of *London russet, being much esteemed.
1501. Ld. Treas. Acc. Scotl. (1900), II. 39. v quarteris *Londone scarlat to lyne the samyn [doublat].
1883. Daily News, 16 Oct., 3/1. Blue black, dark grey, and the new *‘London smoke’ are chosen.
1884. Hogg, Fruit Man. (ed. 5), 605. *London Sugar,… A small, very early pear; ripe in the end of July, and beginning of August.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, II. clxxiv. 480. Sweete Williams, Tolmeiners, and *London Tuftes.
1629. Parkinson, Parad. in Sole (1656), 320. We do … call the … narrower leafed kindes, Sweet Johns, and all the rest Sweet Williams; yet in some places they call the broader leafed kindes that are not spotted … London tufts.
