a. Forms: 5 lucius, 6 lousious, looshiouse, 6–7 lussious, (6 -youse, 7 loushous), 6–8 lushious, (7 -yous), 6– luscious. [Of obscure origin.
The form lucius, occurring in a MS. which elsewhere has licius in the same sense (see LICIOUS) suggests (as Prof. Skeat has remarked) that the word may be an aphetic form of DELICIOUS, with altered vowel. But phonetically this is unsatisfactory, and no better suggestion has been made.]
1. Of food, perfumes, etc.: Sweet and highly pleasant to the taste or smell.
c. 1420. Anturs of Arth., 458 (Irel. MS.). With lucius drinkes, and metis of the best.
1566. Drant, Horace’s Sat., II. iv. H. The stronge may eate good looshiouse meate.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., II. i. 251. I know a banke … Quite ouer-cannoped with luscious woodbine. Ibid. (1604), Oth., I. iii. 344. The Food that to him now is as lushious as Locusts, shalbe to him shortly, as bitter as Coloquintida.
1630. Drayton, Muses Elizium (1892), 29. The lushyous smell of euery flower.
1655. Fuller, Waltham Abb., 5. The grass … is so sweet and lushious to Cattle, that they diet them.
a. 1700. Dryden, Daphnis & Chloris, Poems, 1743, II. 40. Blown Roses hold their Sweetness to the last, And Raisins keep their luscious native taste.
1733. Cheyne, Eng. Malady, II. v. § 5 (1734), 159. The Means us’d commonly in making it [food] more luscious and palatable.
1758. Johnson, Idler, No. 96, ¶ 4. The most luscious fruits had been allowed to ripen and decay.
1840. Browning, Sordello, 634. Like the great palmer-worm that … Eats the life out of every luscious plant.
1869. Browning, Ring & Bk., IX. 401. The luscious Lenten creature [sc. the eel].
1870. H. Macmillan, Bible Teach., ix. 187. Its luscious clusters of golden or purple fruit.
quasi-adv. 1588. T. Hariot, Rep. Virginia, B 2 b. There are two kinds of grapes…: the one is small and sowre…: the other farre greater & of himselfe lushious sweet.
fig. 1665. Boyle, Occas. Refl., V. iii. (1848), 305. The luscious sweets of sin.
a. 1716. South, Serm. (1823), IV. 309. May there not be … something more glistering than a crown? and more luscious than revenge?
1848. Kingsley, Saint’s Trag., III. ii. 250. Sinking down In luscious rest again.
† b. transf. of a young person. Obs.
1742. Fielding, J. Andrews, I. vii. He … really is … a strong, healthy, luscious boy enough.
2. In bad sense: Sweet to excess, cloying, sickly.
1530. Palsgr., 313/1. Fresshe or lussyouse as meate that is nat well seasoned, or that hath an unplesante swetnesse in it, fade.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Country Farm, 239. The smell of them [sc. other Lillies] is lussious, grosse, and vnwholesome.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Lushious, over-sweet, cloying.
1816. Scott, Old Mort., Conclus. The last cup … is by no means improved by the luscious lump of half-dissolved sugar usually found at the bottom of it.
1830. M. Donovan, Dom. Econ., I. 275. Without the addition of water … the resulting wine will be luscious and heavy.
1877. ‘Rita,’ Vivienne, III. vi. And the luscious dreary odours of … fading flowers and trodden fruits, were heavy in the air.
3. Of immaterial things, esp. of language or literary style: Sweet and highly pleasing to the eye, ear or mind. Chiefly in unfavorable use, implying a kind of ‘sweetness’ not strictly in accordance with good taste.
1651. Fuller, Abel Rediv., Berengarius (1867), I. 4. He often … addulced his discourse with all luscious expressions unto him.
1653. A. Wilson, Jas. I., Pref. 8. Lushious words, that give no good rellish to the sense.
1708. Burnet, Lett. (ed. 3), 304. All those luscious Panegyricks of Mercenary Pens.
1738. Birch, App. Life Milton, I. 78. A luscious Style stuffed with gawdy Metaphors and Fancy.
1822. Hazlitt, Table-t., Ser. II. iii. (1869), 66. A stream of luscious panegyrics.
1840. Kingsley, Lett. (1878), I. 50. I have shed strange tears at the sight of the most luscious and sunny prospects.
1902. Longm. Mag., March, 479. The Lotus Eaters … is what may be called a luscious expansion of four or five lines of the Odyssey.
b. Of coloring, design, etc.
1849. Ruskin, Sev. Lamps, ii. § 15. 42. The groups of children,… luscious in colour and faint in light. Ibid., iv. § 13. 105. This extraordinary piece of luscious ugliness [a festoon].
† 4. Of tales, conversation, writing, etc.: Gratifying to lascivious tastes, voluptuous, wanton. Rarely of a person: Lascivious. Obs.
a. 1613. Overbury, A Wife (1638), 63. She leaves the neat youth, telling his lushious tales.
a. 1694. Tillotson, Serm. (1744), XI. ccviii. 4217. Those luscious doctrines of the Antinomians.
1702. Pope, Jan. & May, 379. Cantharides,… Whose use old Bards describe in luscious rhymes.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa (1768), VII. xliv. 123. Calista [in ‘The Fair Penitent’] is a desiring luscious wench.
1766. Fordyce, Serm. Yng. Wom. (1767), I. iv. 149. Their descriptions are often loose and luscious in a high degree.
1815. W. H. Ireland, Scribbleomania, 143. Descriptions so luscious—such pictures of passion That prudes, ta’en with furor, to ruin might dash on.
5. absol. (with the).
1708. Brit. Apollo, No. 78. 3/1. There’s a Great deal of Wit, But the Devil a Bit Of the lushious, can I find In’t.
1790. A. Wilson, Ep. to Mr. T— B—, Poet. Wks. (1846), 87. A poet, Whose mem’ry will live while the luscious can charm.
