[Formerly tulipa, tulippa, also tulipant, -pan = F. tulipan, tulipe, It. tulipano, Sp. tulipan, Pg. tulipa, -ippa, mod.L. tulīpa; early mod.Du. and Ger. tulpe, Du. tulp, Da. tulipan, Sw. tulpan; all from tul(i)band, vulgar Turkish pronunciation of Persian dulband ‘turban,’ which the expanded flower of the tulip is thought to resemble: cf. TURBAN.]
1. A bulbous plant of the genus Tulipa (N.O. Liliaceæ), esp. the species T. Gesneriana, introduced from Turkey into Western Europe in the 16th c., and since extensively cultivated in very numerous varieties, blooming in spring, with broad bell-shaped or cup-shaped, usually erect, showy flowers, of various colors and markings; also, the flower itself.
The first mention of it by a Western European is by Busbek (c. 1554), the Emperor’s ambassador, on the way from Adrianople to Constantinople, where ‘ingens ubique florum copia offerebatur, narcissorum, hyacinthorum, et eorum quos Turcae tulipan vocant.’ It was grown by the Fuggers at Augsburg, where it was seen and described by Gesner in 1561. It was introduced successively in Vienna, Mechlin, France, and England; it is mentioned by Lyte in his transl. of Dodoneus.
α. 1578. Lyte, Dodoens, II. lii. 212. Of Tulpia, or Tulipa…. The great Tulpia, or rather Tulipa. Ibid., 213. The greater Tulpia is brought from Grece, and the Countrie about Constantinople…. The greater is called both Tulpia, and Tulpian, and of some Tulipa, which is a Turkie name or worde, we may call it Lillynarcissus.
1582. in Hakluyt, Voy. (1599), II. 165. Now within these foure yeeres there haue bene brought into England from Vienna … diuers kinds of flowers called Tulipas.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, I. lxxvii. 116. Tulipa, or the Dalmatian cap, is a strang and forraine flower. [Ibid., 117. After [the Tulipa of Bolonia] hath beene some fewe daies floured, the points and brims of the flower turne backward, like a Dalmatian or Turkes cap, called Tulipan, Tolepan, Turban, and Turfan, whereof it tooke his name.]
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., III. ii. IV. i. As a tulipant to the sun (which our herbalists call Narcissus) when it shines is … a glorious flower exposing itself.
1629. Parkinson, Paradisus, II. viii. 46. The early Tulipa (and so all other Tulipas) springeth out of the ground with his leaues folded one within another. Ibid., 66. We call it in English the Turkes Cap, but most vsually Tulipa.
β. 1615. G. Sandys, Trav., I. 57. You cannot stirre abroad but you shall be presented by the Deruises and Ianizaries, with tulips and trifles.
1633. Johnson, Gerarde’s Herbal, I. lxxxvii. 139. The bloud-red Tulip with a yellow bottome. Ibid., 140. Tulipa purpurea. The purple Tulip Tulipa rubra amethistina. The bright red Tulip.
1758. Johnson, Idler, No. 30, ¶ 5. Another searches the world for tulips.
1842. Tennyson, Gard. Dau., 189. A Dutch love For tulips.
1872. Yeats, Techn. Hist. Comm., 228. Tulips were introduced from Constantinople, and first bloomed in the beautiful grounds of Heinrich Herwart, in 1559.
b. Applied, usually with defining word, to species of this, and various plants more or less resembling it, or their flowers; also to the flowers of the TULIP-TREE; in S. Africa, to a poisonous herb also called tulip-grass (see 5).
African tulip, the genus Hæmanthus (N. O. Amaryllidaceæ). Butterfly tulip, the genus Calochortus of California, also called mariposa-lily. Cape tulip, name for several S. African plants: (a) various species of Homeria (= tulip-grass: see 5); (b) Melanthium uniflorum (Bæometra columellaris); (c) Red Cape tulip, Hæmanthus coccineus. Chequered tulip, Drooping tulip = wild tulip, (b). Native tulip, of Australia (see quot. 1898, and TULIP-TREE 2 a). Parrot tulip (see PARROT sb. 4). Wild tulip, (a) Tulipa sylvestris, a rare and doubtful native of Britain, with fragrant yellow flowers; (b) a name for the wild fritillary, Fritillaria Meleagris; (c) in California, = butterfly tulip.
1759. Miller, Gard. Dict. (ed. 7), s.v. Tulip-tree, The Flowers … [have] six Petals,… which form a sort of Beil-shaped Flower, from whence the Inhabitants of North America gave it the Title of Tulip.
1760. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., App. 330. African Tulip, Hæmanthus.… Chequer’d Tulip, Fritillaria.
1850. Pappe, Floræ Capensis Med. Prodr., 26. Moræa collina, Thbg. (known to almost every child in the colony as the Cape Tulip), not for its therapeutical use, but for its obnoxiousness.
1861. Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., V. 276. Wild Tulip … has a much smaller blossom than the cultivated species,… its colour within is bright yellow, and externally yellowish-green.
[1863. W. C. Baldwin, Afr. Hunting, vi. 144. Donker, my best ox is dead, having got at a poisonous kind of grass, called by the Dutch tulp.]
1884. Miller, Plant-n., Cape Tulip, Melanthium uniflorum (Tulipa Breyiana). —, Red Cape, Hæmanthus coccineus.… Drooping T., Fritillaria Meleagris. Ibid., Calochortus, Butterfly-Tulip,… Mariposa Lily,… Wild Tulip, of California.
1885. Rider Haggard, K. Solomon’s Mines, iv. The other three [oxen] died from eating the poisonous herb called ‘tulip.’
1898. Morris, Austral Eng., Telopea,… the genus containing… the Waratah.… The name has been corrupted popularly into Tulip, and the flower is often called the Native Tulip.
1908. Westm. Gaz., 14 May, 12/1. A field … covered with the purple blossoms of the ‘tulip,’ as the villagers call it [the fritillary].
2. fig. A showy person or thing, or one greatly admired.
1647. Cowley, Mistress, Beauty, iii. Beauty, thou active passive Ill!… Thou Tulip, who thy Stock in Paint dost waste.
1672. Mede’s Wks., Life p. xlii. Such Fellow-commoners who came to the University only to see it and to be seen … he call’d The University-Tulips, that made a Gaudy shew for a while.
1701. Cibber, Love makes Man, V. ii. My little Blossom! my Gilliflower! my Rose! my Pink! my Tulip!
1837. Thackeray, Ravenswing, i. Morgiana was a tulip among women, and the tulip fanciers all came flocking round her.
b. slang. My tulip, ‘my fine fellow.’
3. A bell-shaped outward swell in the muzzle of a gun, now generally disused.
1884. [implied in tulip choke].
1889. Engineer, Oct., 314. Breech-loading guns,… gradually tapering from a diameter of 4 ft. 7 in. at the breech to 17 in. near the muzzle, which possesses what artillerists call a tulip or ‘swell.’
4. slang. A bishop’s mitre, or a figure of one.
1879. A. R. Ashwell, Bp. Wilberforce, I. iii. 66, note. I heard one of the low fellows … say ‘No, It’s not a Tulip,’ meaning that there was no mitre on the panel [of the carriage].
5. attrib. and Comb., as tulip-bed, -bulb, -fancier, -glass, -grower, -leaf, -mania; tulip-fancying, -like, -shaped, -tinted adjs.; tulip-apple, a variety of apple with bright-colored fruit; tulip choke (cf. sense 3 and CHOKE sb.1 4); tulip ear, of a dog: see quot. 1877; so tulip-eared a.; tulip-grass, a name for several S. African poisonous herbs of the genus Homeria (N.O. Iridaceæ); tulip-laurel, ? a species of Magnolia; tulip poplar = TULIP-TREE 1 (see POPLAR 2); tulip-poppy, a Mexican papaveraceous plant, Hunnemannia fumariæfolia, with flowers like those of Eschscholtzia; tulip-root, (a) the ‘root’ or bulb of a tulip; (b) a disease of oats, characterized by a swelling at the base of the stem, caused by a minute nematoid worm; tulip-shell, (a) a bivalve of the genus Tellina; (b) any gastropod of the family Fasciolariadæ, as Fasciolaria tulipa. Also TULIP-TREE, -WOOD.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 529. The tree is still more beautiful when covered with fruit, especially with such as are highly-coloured, such as the red Astrachan, the *tulip-apple, &c.
1664. Evelyn, Kal. Hort., June (1729), 208. Take up your *Tulip Bulbs.
1884. Burgess, Sporting Fire Arms, 4. The sketches show the ordinary choke and the *tulip choke.
1877. G. Stables, Pract. Kennel Guide, iii. (ed. 3), 36. *Tulip-ear.—Partly pricked, and drooping at the tip. Ibid., vii. § 3, 81. [Ears of Skye Terrier] may be pricked, or tulip.
1837. *Tulip fanciers [see 2].
1826. Scott, Woodst., xxxiii. A *tulip-fancying fellow,… intended for a Dutch gardener.
1760. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., App. 330. *Tulip-flower, Bignonia.
1755. Gentl. Mag., Sept., 416/1. Several lacrymatories have also been dug up, some are of glass,… and some are of burnt earth, like our *tulip-glasses.
1900. Blackw. Mag., April, 574/1. He has eaten *tulip-grass.
1882. Pall Mall G., 18 Oct., 4. A Dutch *tulip-grower.
1766. W. Stork, Acc. East Florida, 47. The magnolia, *tulip-laurel, tupelow-tree, are all beautiful.
a. 1718. Prior, Alma, I. 381. But *Tulip-leaves, and Limon-peel Help only to adorn the meal.
c. 1711. Petiver, Gazophyl., IX. Tab. 85. Red *Tulip-like Flowers.
1839. Penny Cycl., XIV. 314/1. The extravagances of those visited by the *tulip mania.
1683. Lond. Gaz., No. 1810/4. Lost…, a Gold Pendulum Watch,… with… Steel Chain, and *Tulip Pillars.
1868. Rep. U.S. Comm. Agric. (1869), 99. Endecatomus rugosus … has been also taken under the bark of *tulip poplars.
1909. Cent. Dict. Suppl., Hunnemannia … contains a single Mexican species, H. fumariæfolia, now somewhat cultivated under the name *tulip-poppy.
1728–46. Thomson, Spring, 538. Then comes the *tulip race, where Beauty plays Her idle freaks.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 108, ¶ 3. He carries a *Tulip-root in his Pocket.
1875. Encycl. Brit., I. 360/2. The oat frequently suffers much from a disease called ‘segging’ or ‘tulip root.’
1833. Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 190. Ornamental *tulip-shaped chimney-pots.
1835. Kirby, Hab. & Inst. Anim., I. viii. 265. The *tulip-shell (Tellina) when it walks,… opens and shuts its valves.
1861. P. P. Carpenter, in Rep. Smithsonian Instit., 1860, 180. Family Fasciolariadæ. (Tulip-shells and Mitres).
Hence (or from mod.L. tulipa) Tulipiferous a. [-FEROUS], bearing flowers like tulips, as the tulip-tree; Tulipine, Chem., a poisonous stimulant alkaloid obtained from the garden tulip; Tulipist, a person devoted to the cultivation of tulips; Tulipomania [-MANIA], a craze for tulips, as that which prevailed in Holland in the 17th c.; Tulipomaniac, one affected with tulipomania; Tulipy a., abounding in tulips; † sb. a tulip.
1786. J. Abercrombie, Arrangem., in Gard. Assist., 38/1. *Tulipiferous, or common tulip bearing [Tulip tree].
1909. Cent. Dict. Suppl., *Tulipine.
1913. Dorland, Med Dict., Tulipin.
1658. Sir T. Browne, Hydriot., Ded. The Ingenuous delight of *Tulipists.
1710. Addison, Tatler, No. 218, ¶ 7. A Person of good Sense, had not his Head been touched with … the … *Tulippomania.
1756. Jackson’s Oxford Jrnl., 3 April, 1/1. Such is the Tulipomania in Holland, where Men are seized with a Passion of squandering their Fortunes in Flower Roots.
1842. Chamb. Jrnl., 12 Feb., 32/3. When the Tulipomania infected Holland, and single roots were sold for many hundred pounds.
1842. Blackw. Mag., LI. 426. The prices of these roots … are enough … to delight the cupidity of a Dutch *tulipo-maniac.
a. 1849. J. C. Mangan, Poems (1859), 322. Shaarmal’s *tulipy dell.
c. 1626. W. Bosworth, Arcadius & Sepha, I. 882. That blood with wat’ry eye Which leaves her breast to turn t’ a *tulippy.
