lilly-low

English

Alternative forms

• lilly low, lillylow

Etymology

Likely from Scots lilly (“lovely”) +‎ low (“flame”). The first term might also directly come from liefly.

Noun

lilly-low (plural lilly-lows)

1. (obsolete, UK, Scotland, dialect) A flame, especially a bright, small or lovely one.
   • 1782, Robert Robinson, “The Preface”, in Arcana: in VIII. Letters to a Friend, London:  […] W. Lepard and J. Buckland, page xv:

     Should any pretend to quibble at the little eſcapes of ſuch men, the bulk of the world would know no more of it than of the Anatomiſts interſcapularia, and the reſt would conſider it as a north-country Lilly-Low, that is, a mere ſtraw-fire.

   • 1868, J. Reynard, “The Victoria Mission: From the Journal of the Rev. J. Reynard, 1866-67”, in Ninth Annual Report of the Columbia Mission for the Year 1867, London: Rivingtons, page 21:

     Then she arranged the logs in a more scientific manner, blew one long, well-directed breath, causing what Yorkshire folk call "a lilly-low," then nodded her head significantly, with another broad smile.

   • 1890 January, Walter Adams Wallace, Only a Sister?: A Tale of To-day‎^{Quote [1] [2]}, London: Roper & Drowley, page 360:

     For lily-lows is nought to it for burning.

   • 1906, Lina Eckenstein, “Riddle-rhymes” (chapter X), in Comparative Studies in Nursery Rhymes, London: Duckworth & Co., page 113:

     Lilly-low, lilly-low, set up on end,
     See little baby go out at town end.

   • 1912, Louis Pergaud, “Margot”, in Douglas English, transl., Tales of the Untamed: Dramas of the Animal World, New York: Outing Publishing Company, pages 192-193:

     Winter, disputing every inch of ground, at last retreated beaten. The sun burst through the sullen clouds, and flung his lusty beams about the house. The dust-motes caught their radiance, and danced in shimmering lilly-lows, which played ahout the kitchen.

   • 1975 January, Evelyn E. Smith, Unpopular Planet, Dell Publishing, page 331:

     Occasionally at evenglome one of the Gillie Girls would come and sit on a Rock offshore and sing to me by the light of the lilly-lows, accompanying herself on her long golden hair, which should not have sorted very well with her scaly green skin but somehow did.