arch. Also 6 lot. [Anglicized form of LOTUS.] = LOTUS in various senses.
1. The Nettle-tree: = LOTE-TREE a.
c. 1510. Barclay, Mirr. Gd. Manners (1570), F iij. In hye grounde or hilles reioyseth the Peretree, But the Lote and Planetree where waters often flowe.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, III. cxvii. 1308. Of the Lote or Nettle tree. The Lote whereof we write, is a tree as big as a Peare tree.
1665–76. Rea, Flora (ed. 2), 221. The Lote or Nettle tree.
2. [After Homer’s λωτός.] Some kind of clover, trefoil or melilot: = LOTUS 3. Bird’s-foot Lote = Lotus corniculatus.
1548. Turner, Names of Herbes, 49. Lotus syluestris.… It maye be called in english wylde lote [Melilotus officinalis, Willd.].
1615. Chapman, Odyss., IV. 802. Where the broad fields beare Sweet Cypers grasse; where men-fed Lote doth flow.
1676. Hobbes, Iliad (1677), 33. The horses … upon lote and cinquefoil feeding were.
1713. Petiver, in Phil. Trans., XXVIII. 208. These Pods are lightly joynted like the Birds foot Lote.
3. The food of the Lotophagi (usually identified with the berry of Zisyphus Lotus: see LOTUS 1).
1638. Farley, Emblems, xxxi. E 8. Thus cralling for its food, my soule can fret And tasting Lote, his Country doth forget.
1726. Pope, Odyss., XXIII. 335. How to the land of Lote unblessed he sails.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 114. The fruit of Zizyphus … is often wholesome and pleasant to eat, as in the case of the Jujube and the Lote, the latter of which is now known to have given their name to the classical Lotophagi.
1855. Bailey, Mystic, 80. That heart-soothing herb, not less renowned Than lote, nepenthes, moly, or tolu.
4. The lotus-lily: see LOTUS 4.
1561. A. Scott, New Yeir Gift to Q. Mary, 218. Fragrant flour formois, Lantern to lufe, of ladeis lamp and lot.
1650–60. Wharton, Disc. Soul World, Wks. (1683), 657. The Lote (which shutteth its Leaves before Sun Rise, but when he Ascendeth openeth them by degrees).
5. attrib. and Comb., as lote-berry, -eater, -leaf; lote-bush, Zizyphus Lotus.
1611. Cotgr., Micocoules, *Lote berries (be round, and hang by long staulkes like Cherries).
1846. Lindley, Veg. Kingd., 582. The *Lote-bush, which gave its name to the Ancient Lotophagi, is to this day collected for food by the Arabs of Barbary.
1587. Golding, trans. Solinus Polyhistor (1590), S iij. In the innermost part of the bigger Syrt … inhabited the *Loteaters.
1638. Mayne, Lucian (1664), 355. Your example of the Lote-eaters, and instance of the Syrens, camy no resemblance to my case.
1865. Swinburne, Laus Veneris, 185. Softer than the Egyptian *lote-leaf.
