- skip - Brewer’s

Daiʹsy

.

Ophelia gives the queen a daisy to signify “that her light and fickle love ought not to expect constancy in her husband.” So the daisy is explained by Greene to mean a Quip for an upstart courtier. (Anglo-Saxon dœges eāge, day’s eye.)

The word is Day’s eye, and the flower is so called because it closes its pinky lashes and goes to sleep when the sun sets, but in the morning it expands its petals to the light. (See Violet.)        

That well by reason men calle it maie,

The daisie, or else the eie of the daie.”

2


Chaucer.

 

previous entry · index · next entry

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

previous entry · index · next entry

Dagun
Dahak
Dahlia
Dahomey
Daïboth
Daikoku
Daïri
Dairy
Dais
Daisies
Daisy
Daisy (Solomon)
Daisy-cutter (A)
Daisy-roots
Dalai-Lama [grand lama]
Daldah
Dalgarno (Lord)
Dalgetty (Dugald)
Dalkey (King of)
Dalle (French)
Dalmatica