The Collaborative International Dictionary
Gillyflower \Gil"ly*flow`er\, n. [OE. gilofre, gilofer, clove, OF. girofre, girofle, F. girofle: cf. F. girofl['e]e gillyflower, fr. girofle, Gr. ? clove tree; ? nut + ? leaf, akin to E. foliage. Cf. Caryophyllus, July-flower.] [Written also gilliflower.] (Bot.)
A name given by old writers to the clove pink ( Dianthus Caryophyllus) but now to the common stock ( Matthiola incana), a cruciferous plant with showy and fragrant blossoms, usually purplish, but often pink or white.
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A kind of apple, of a roundish conical shape, purplish red color, and having a large core.
Clove gillyflower, the clove pink.
Marsh gillyflower, the ragged robin ( Lychnis Flos-cuculi).
Queen's gillyflower, or Winter gillyflower, damewort.
Sea gillyflower, the thrift ( Armeria vulgaris).
Wall gillyflower, the wallflower ( Cheiranthus Cheiri).
Water gillyflower, the water violet.
Wiktionary
n. (alternative spelling of gillyflower English)
Wikipedia
A gilliflower or gillyflower is:
- The carnation or a similar plant of the genus Dianthus, especially the Clove Pink Dianthus caryophyllus.
- Matthiola incana, also known as stock.
- Several other plants, such as the wallflower, which have fragrant flowers.
The name derives from the French giroflée from Greek karyophyllon = " nut-leaf" = the spice called clove.
It was frequently used in medieval tenure documents as a means of payment of peppercorn rent for land. For example in 1262 in Bedfordshire an area of land called The Hyde was owned by someone "for the rent of one clove of gilliflower", and Elmore Court in Gloucester was granted to the Guise family by John De Burgh for the rent of "The clove of one Gillyflower" each year. In Kent in the 13th century Bartholomew de Badlesmere upon an exchange made between Edward I and himself, had a grant made to him in see of a manor and chapel, to hold in socage, "by the service of paying one pair of clove gilliflowers", by the hands of the sheriff.
The rose and gillyflower appear on the station badge of RAF Waterbeach in Cambridgeshire, and subsequently on the badge of 39 Engineer Regiment based at Waterbeach Barracks. A rose and gillyflower were demanded by the owner of the land on which Waterbeach Abbey was built, in the 12th century.
An old recipe for gilliflower wine is mentioned in the Cornish Recipes Ancient & Modern dated to 1753:
Gilliflowers are mentioned by Mrs. Lovett in the song "Wait" from the Sondheim musical Sweeney Todd and in the novel La Faute de l'Abbé Mouret (aka Abbe Mouret's Transgression or the Sin of the Father Mouret) by Émile Zola as part of the Les Rougon-Macquart series. Charles Ryder has them growing under his window when he is a student at Oxford in the novel Brideshead Revisited. Shakespeare's Perdita is scathing about gilliflowers, or "streaked gillyvors" in Act IV, Sc 4 of his Winter's Tale, because they are cross-fertilized by humans, rather than by Nature: "I have heard it said/There is an art which in their piedness shares/With great creating Nature ... I'll not put/The dibble in earth to set one slip of them". In the ballad Clerk Saunders, the ghost of Saunders tells May Margaret of the fate of those women who die in labour: "Their beds are made in the heavens high,/Down at the foot of our good Lord’s knee,/Weel set about wi’ gillyflowers;/I wot, sweet company for to see."
Usage examples of "gilliflower".
When Gilliflower promised that she would never quit her, by a hundred little signs the poor hind tried to express how happy she was.
But when Becafico, who had eyes as sharp as needles, coming to meet his master, by chance caught sight of Gilliflower, he recognised her at once.
Becafico, determined to gratify his curiosity, made all sorts of inquiries, and discovered that Gilliflower was lodged in the next room.
Suddenly, a turtledove of the purest whiteness comes flying in at the window, and alights upon his hand, bearing in her bill a branch of red gilliflower, on the leaves of which is written, in letters of gold, the following sentence: Awake!
He holds his manor on the presentation of a clove of gilliflower at the court of Gloucester, and it was granted to his ancestors by John de Burgh, son of Hubert, the first Earl of Kent, and Justiciary of England.
Stock Gilliflower are used by certain empiricks and quack salvers about love and lust,--matters which for modesty I omit.
G before i is hard, as give, except in giant, gigantick, gibbet, gibe, giblets, Giles, gill, gilliflower, gin, ginger, gingle, to which may be added Egypt and gypsy.
The little balcony of wrought iron which advanced in front of this window was furnished with a pot of red gilliflowers, another pot of primroses, and an early rose-tree, the foliage of which, beautifully green, was variegated with numerous red specks announcing future roses.