basil
Pluralbasils (some meanings)
Verbbasils
Pluralbasils (some meanings)
Formsbasils
- 1The aromatic leaves of the basil plant, used as a culinary herb to season food.
Italian cooks fold fresh basil into pesto along with pine nuts and cheese.
Thai cuisine uses basil quite differently from Mediterranean cooking.
- 2A leafy garden plant of the species Ocimum basilicum, grown for its aromatic foliage.
Basil grows best in warm weather with plenty of sunlight.
Gardeners pinch back basil to encourage bushier growth.
Note
The name is a royal one. Middle English basile came through French and Medieval Latin from Greek basilikón, "royal", from basileús, "king", and basilic and basilicum are doublets of the same word. The plant is usually treated as a mass noun (a row of basil), and its fuller names include sweet basil, common basil and great basil. Three unrelated words share the spelling: one from bezel, one from a sheepskin term, one from basilisk.
- 3Any species in the genus Ocimum apart from Ocimum basilicum.
Holy basil is grown across South Asia for both cooking and religious use.
Lemon basil has a citrus scent quite unlike the sweet basil used in pesto.
- 4The bevel angle given to the edge of a joiner's tool when it is sharpened.
The cabinetmaker checked the basil on each chisel before starting work.
Grinding too steep a basil can leave the edge prone to chipping.
Similarbevel
Note
A workshop variant of bezel, unrelated to the herb despite the shared spelling. Joseph Moxon, writing on joinery in 1678, already uses it for the face the whetstone works on. He tells the sharpener to spit on the stone and apply it to the basil of the iron so that it bears on the whole breadth. Iron there means the blade itself, and basil is the ground surface that makes its edge.
- 5To grind the edge of a cutting tool down to an acute angle.
The joiner basils every new tool to an acute edge before fitting the handle.
Apprentices learn to basil a chisel evenly across its width.
Similarbevel
Note
The verb that goes with the ground angle splits by spelling. British usage doubles the l (basilling, basilled), while American usage keeps one (basiling, basiled). It is transitive, taking the tool or its edge as object. Alex W. Bealer's Old Ways of Working Wood (1972) shows it with have and a past participle: a chisel may "have the edge basiled" on the inside or the outside of the blade.
- 6Leather made from sheepskin tanned with bark.
The bookbinder favored basil for inexpensive bindings.
Saddlers sometimes substituted basil where finer leather was too costly.
Note
A leatherworker's word with a history of its own, unrelated to the plant name. It is a corruption of basan, which came through French basane and Late Latin basanium from Arabic biṭāna, meaning "lining". Henry Mayhew, writing in 1851, describes sleepers covered with a basil. He stops to explain it to his readers as dressed sheepskin, the kind cobblers used for aprons, with a dark brown color.
Less common meanings
- 7An iron fetter locked around the ankle of a prisoner.
When I once more feel that sharp smarting around the scabby sores that cluster like so many oysters on my ankles beneath my chained iron basils, I know that the tide has turned.
2001, Richard Flanagan, Gould's Book of FishNote
An old prison word that historical fiction still reaches for. Richard Flanagan's Gould's Book of Fish (2001) has its convict narrator feel sores clustering "beneath my chained iron basils". Outside settings like that one the word is archaic and needs context to be understood. It comes from the same Old French basile, "basilisk", that gave the obsolete cannon its name.
- 8An early type of large cannon.
The defenders trained their basil on the approaching fleet.
A single basil guarded the narrow entrance to the bay.
Note
A gun named after a monster: the word comes from Old French basile, meaning "basilisk", the legendary serpent. It shares a spelling with the herb and the leather but not their histories. Because it is now obsolete, it belongs to historical writing about early artillery. In a present-day sentence it reads as a period term, so it suits fiction or history set in that era. Elsewhere, plain cannon is the safer word.
Showing meanings only.
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Origins
It came through Middle and Old French from Medieval Latin basilicum, which came from Ancient Greek basilikón meaning "royal," from basileús "king." It is a doublet of basilic, basilicon, and basilicum.
It is a variant of "bezel."
It is a corruption of English basan, from French basane, from Late Latin basanium, from Arabic biṭāna meaning "lining."
It comes from Old French basile meaning "basilisk."