| 释义 |
blue grass, blue-grass Chiefly U.S.
[blue a. 12 b.]
1. a. A field-grass (Poa compressa or pratensis), characteristic especially of Kentucky and Virginia. (See also quot. 1903.)
1751C. Gist Jrnls. (1893) 47 It is..full of beautiful natural Meadows covered with wild Rye, blue Grass and Clover. 1879Sir G. Campbell Black & Wh. 14 The *blue-grass of Kentucky is famous; though it is not blue at all, but green, and very like our common natural grass. 1883Harper's Mag. Oct. 719/2 The blue-grass..is not blue at all..It is ‘blue limestone grass’ properly. 1889Harper's Mag. Jan. 259/1 The blue-grass..blooms toward the middle of June in a bluish, almost a peacock blue, blossom, which gives to the fields an exquisite hue. 1903S. Clapin Dict. Amer. 60 In Maryland the term blue grass is applied to a species of grass very injurious to wheat and clover, and hard to eradicate.
b. The region of the blue grass; spec. the State of Kentucky.
1872Schele de Vere Americanisms 407 Both the region where it grows naturally, and the settlers there are known as Blue Grass simply, and hence the State of Kentucky especially is often thus designated. 1887Harper's Mag. June 48/2 To that pleasant land of the Kentuckian, the ‘Blue-grass’.
c. A type of American folk-music. Also attrib.
1958in Amer. Speech (1960) XXXV. 223. 1960 20th Cent. Dec. 559 A new compromise simulacrum, the bluegrass band..five-string banjo, mandolin, guitar, bass, fiddle and a holler-vocalist. 1969Rolling Stone 28 June 11/3 Hillman has watched the rock scene change over the years (as a bluegrass mandolin player, then one of the original Byrds).
d. attrib. So Blue Grass State, Kentucky.
1772Pennsylvania Gaz. 16 Apr. 4/3 Timothy and blue grass hay to be sold. 1863E. Dicey Six Months in Federal States II. 64 What is called the Blue Grass region of Kentucky. 1883Harper's Mag. Oct. 715/1 The blue-grass country is reached by traversing central Virginia and Kentucky. 1886Chicago Wkly. News 29 Apr. 4/3 Kentucky..is also called the Blue Grass state.
e. ellipt. as adj. Belonging to or characteristic of the blue-grass country.
1889Harper's Mag. Aug. 459/2 Bud rode into the yard on Mollie... ‘Blue-grass all over. I wonder how he came by her.’ 1913G. S. Porter Laddie x. 274 There's a strain of Arab in the father,..and the mother is bluegrass.
2. Applied to other grasses.
1811W. Aiton Gen. View Agric. Ayr 305 Carices, sedge-grasses..are, by the Ayrshire farmers, called blue, sour, one-pointed grasses. 1845New Statist. Acc. Scot. VII. 518 We have but very little of the blue or star-grass (carex panicea). 1902Encycl. Brit. XXXII. 108/2 On the extensive plains [of Queensland]..may be seen..‘Blue grass’ (Andropogon sericeus, A. pertusus, A. refractus, and A. erianthoides). |
