lucern

English

Etymology 1

Latin lucerna.

Noun

lucern (plural lucerns)

1. (obsolete) A lamp.
   • a. 1500, Robert Henryson, Ane Prayer for the Pest:

     Superne Lucerne, guberne this pestilens

Etymology 2

French luzerne.

Noun

lucern (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of lucerne (the plant alfalfa)

Etymology 3

Probably adapted from obsolete German lüchsern (“pertaining to the lynx”, adjective) (attested 1600s), as applied to the fur or skin of the lynx, from Luchs (“lynx”).

Noun

lucern (plural lucerns)

1. (obsolete) (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) A sort of hunting dog.
   • 1603-1607, George Chapman, Bussy D'Ambois:

     My lucerns, too (or dogs inur'd to hunt / Beasts of most rapine).

2. (obsolete) The lynx, viewed as an animal hunted for its fur or skin.
   • c. 1622, John Fletcher, Philip Massinger [et al.?], “Beggars Bvsh”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act III, scene iii:

     The pole-cat, martern, and the rich-skin'd lucern / I know to chase.

Alternative forms

• lusern, luzern

References

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “lucern”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)