Chapter Lurch to Lyme-hound of L by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Lurch to Lyme-hound

Lurch To leave in the lurch. To leave a person in a difficulty. In cribbage a person is left in the lurch when his adversary has run out his score of sixty-one holes before he himself has turned the corner (or pegged his thirty-first) hole. In cards it is a slam, that is, when one of the players wins the entire game before his adversary has scored a single point or won a trick.

Lush Beer and other intoxicating drinks; so called from Lushington the brewer.

Lusiad or The Lusiads. The adventures of the Lusians or Portuguese under Vasquez da Gama in their “discovery of India.” The fleet first sailed to Mozambique, in Africa, but Bacchus (the guardian power of the Mahometans) raised a commotion against the Lusians, and a battle ensued in which the Lusians were victorious. The fleet was next conducted by treachery to Quiloa, a harbour on the east coast of the same continent; but Venus or Divine love, to save her favourites from danger, drove them away by a tempest, and Hermes bade Gama steer for Melinda, in Africa. At Melinda the Lusians were hospitably received, and the king of the country not only vowed eternal friendship, but also provided a pilot to conduct the fleet to India. In the Indian Ocean Bacchus tried to destroy the fleet, but “the silver star of Divine love” calmed the sea, and Gama arrived at India in safety. Having accomplished his object, Gama returned to Lisbon.
   N.B. Gama sailed three times to India:- (1) with four vessels, in 1497, returning to Lisbon in two years and two months; he was appointed admiral of the Eastern seas. (2) In 1502, with twenty ships, when he was attacked by the Zamorin or king of Calicut, whom he defeated, and returned to Lisbon the year following; and (3) when John III. appointed him viceroy of India. He established his government at Cochin, where he died in 1525. It is the first of these voyages which is the subject of the Lusiad by Camoens.

Lusitania Ancient name for Portugal, said to be so called from Lusus. (See Lusus .)

Lusitanian Prince Don Henry, third son of John I. “the Great,” King of Portugal-

“Who, heaven-inspired;
To love of useful glory roused mankind,
And in unbounded commerce mixed the world.”
Thomson: Summer.

Lustral Water Water for aspersing worshippers was kept in an aspersorium, that those who entered or left the temple might dip their fingers into the water or be sprinkled by a priest. The same may be said of Indian pagodas, and the custom prevailed in ancient Egypt, and Etruria, with the Hebrews, and almost all the nations of antiquity. In Rome the priest used a small olive or laurel branch for sprinkling the people. Infants were also sprinkled with lustral water.

Lustrum A space of five years. The word means a purification. These public expiations were made at Rome by one of the censors every fifth year, at the conclusion of the census. (Latin, luere, to purify.)

Lusus The sons or race of Lusus. Pliny (iii. 1) tells us that Lusus was the companion of Bacchus in his travels, and settled a colony in Portugal; whence the country was termed Lusitania, and the inhabitants Lusians.

Lusus Naturæ A freak of nature; as a man with six toes, a sheep with two heads, or a stone shaped like some well-known object, etc.

Lutestring A glossy silk; a corruption of the French word lustrine (from lustre).
   To speak in lutestring. Flash, highly-polished oratory. The expression was first used in Junius. Shakespeare has “taffeta phrases and silken terms precise.” We call inflated speech “fustian” (q.v.) or “bombast” (q.v.); say a man talks stuff; term a book or speech made up of other men's brains, shoddy (q.v.); sailors call telling a story “spinning a yarn,” etc. etc.

Lutetia Mud-hovels; the ancient name of Paris. The Romans call it Lutetia Parisiorum, the mud-town of the Parisii. The former word being dropped, has left the present name Paris.

Luther's Hymn “Great God, what do I see and hear,” and “A safe strong-hold,” etc.