Tear (to rhyme with “fear”)

Tear and larme. (Anglo - Saxon, tœher; Gothic, tagr; Greek, dakru; Latin, lacrim-a; French, larʹm.)

Tears of Eos. The dew-drops of the morning were so called by the Greeks. Eos was the mother of Memnon (q.v.), and wept for him every morning.

St. Lawrence’s tears. Falling stars. St. Lawrence was roasted to death on a gridiron, and wept that others had not the same spirit to suffer for truth’s sake as he had. (See Lawrence.)

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