lush

lush¹ luxuriant, succulent

Etymology

The adjective meaning luxuriant is inherited from Middle English lusch (“lax, soft”),^[2][3][4] probably altered from the older lasche (“loose, soft, watery”), earlier lacche,^{[3][2][5][6][7]} from Old French lasche (“soft, loose, slack, negligent”),^[8][3][6] from laschier (“to loosen”),^[8][6] from Late Latin laxicō (“to become shaky”),^[8][3][6] related to Latin laxō (“to loosen”), from laxus (“loose”), the source of lax.^[8][6][3] Etymonline takes the Latin word back to Proto-Indo-European *sleg- (“to be slack, be languid”).^[8] The OED thinks the change of vowel was perhaps imitative,^[9] and the SOED and the Oxford Dictionary of English put it down to the influence of luscious.^[7][10] Barnhart finds the form lacche before 1300, in “Kyng Alisaunder”, and the surname Lacheman in 1212.^[3] Dictionary.com instead groups the word with Germanic words for "slack", such as Old English lysu (“bad”), Middle Low German lasch (“slack”), Old Norse lǫskr (“weak”) and Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐍃𐌹𐍅𐍃 (lasiws, “weak”),^[4] and Wiktionary derives it from Proto-Germanic *laskuz (“weak, feeble”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lax, flaccid; soft, tender: about 1440, in the Promptorium Parvulorum, which glosses lush, or slak with Latin laxus.^[9][3][11] This sense is now obsolete except in dialect.^[9][7]

Semantic evolution

The modern sense, of grass and plants that grow juicy and thick, is first found in Shakespeare's The Tempest (1610), "How lush and lusty the grass looks! how green!";^[3][9][2][8] Weekley thought the later use of the word for grass a reminiscence of this line.^[11] Hanmer's glossary of 1744 misread the Shakespeare passage as referring to colour,^[9] and Johnson (1755) followed him, defining lush as "of a dark, deep, full colour, opposite to pale and faint".^[12] Keats applied it to a season in 1818.^[9] From 1851, in Elizabeth Barrett Browning, it was used figuratively for "luxurious", and also of a woman, for "sexually attractive";^[9] the slang use of lush for a voluptuous woman (1944) follows luscious.^[13] The British slang sense "excellent, great" is recorded from 1928, influenced by luscious.^[9][14] In Scots and northern dialect lush kept the senses "sweet, juicy" and, of vegetation, "thriving".^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1440 – lusch, lax, soft.^[9][3]
• 1610 – succulent and luxuriant, of grass, in The Tempest.^[3][2][9]
• 1744 – taken by Hanmer as a colour word.^[9]
• 1818 – of a season, full of growth, in Keats.^[9]
• 1851 – luxurious; of a woman, sexually attractive.^[9]
• 1928 – British slang, excellent.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of plants, growing thickly and strongly; luxuriant: lush meadows by the river.^[14][2][9]
2. Of fruit, succulent and juicy.^[14][2]
3. Luxurious, rich or opulent: a lush hotel lobby.^[14][9]
4. (British slang) Very attractive or pleasing; excellent.^[14][9]
5. (obsolete except in dialect) Lax, soft or tender.^[9][7]

Word family

• lushly
• lushness
• overlush

lush² liquor; drunkard

Etymology

The slang word for liquor and for a drunkard is of unknown origin.^[2][9][8] The OED, the SOED and Hoad suggest that it was perhaps a jocular use of lush¹,^[9][7][5] in Barnhart's view in the sense "watery or juicy".^[3] Weekley and Green's Dictionary of Slang compare Shelta lush (“to eat and drink”),^[11][13] and Green also German Loschen (“strong beer”);^[13] Etymonline mentions a possible source in Romani or in Shelta, the tinkers' jargon.^[8] Barnhart thinks the sense "drunkard" was probably influenced by lushington, recorded from 1840, and may even be a back-formation from it.^[3] Etymonline instead takes Lushington, a humorous name for a tippler from 1823 and also a real surname, as formed from the noun,^[8] and Green lists the explanations offered for it: the noun itself, the name of a brewer, or a convivial society of actors called the "City of Lushington".^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Liquor, drink: 1790, in Potter's New Dictionary of Cant and Flash, especially in lush ken, an alehouse.^[9][8][3] Green's Dictionary of Slang cites a possible earlier instance, in a satire of 1681–2, and Grose's dictionary of 1796 defines lush as strong beer.^[13]

Semantic evolution

The word belonged to thieves' cant and slang from the start: Weekley notes that it first appears in the slang dictionaries of the late 18th century.^[11] The verb, to drink, is recorded from 1811, and the adjective lushy, drunk, from the same year.^[9][3][2] From 1821 to lush someone was to ply him with drink.^[9][13] Lush for a drinking bout appears in 1841,^[9][13] and for a drunkard in 1822 in Green's Dictionary of Slang,^[13] but only in 1890 in the OED and Barnhart, in Jacob Riis's How the Other Half Lives.^[9][3][8] In North America it came to mean an alcoholic,^[7][2] and in American underworld slang from 1950 also an easy victim or a fool.^[13] The phrasal verb lush up, to get drunk or to make someone drunk, is recorded from 1926–27.^[9][7] In the English dialects to lush was to drink freely, in Scotland, England, America and New Zealand.^[15]

Timeline

• 1790 – liquor, also in lush ken, an alehouse.^[9][8][3]
• 1796 – strong beer, in Grose.^[13]
• 1811 – verb, to drink, and lushy, drunk.^[9][3]
• 1821 – to ply with drink.^[9][13]
• 1822 – a drunkard, in Green's Dictionary of Slang.^[13]
• 1841 – a drinking bout.^[9][13]
• 1890 – a habitual drunkard, in Riis.^[9][3]
• 1926 – lush up, to get drunk.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. (slang) A heavy drinker; an alcoholic or drunkard: The old lush was asleep at the end of the bar.^[2][7][13]
2. (slang) Alcoholic drink; liquor.^[2][7][13]
3. (slang) A drinking bout.^[9][7][13]

Verb

1. (slang) To drink alcohol, especially heavily, often with up.^[2][7][13]
2. (slang) To ply someone with drink; to make drunk.^[9][7][13]

Word family

• lushy