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Mistletoe is a plant that grows on other trees, not in the soil. It has thick green leaves and small, sticky white berries. In winter in some countries, people hang a indoors, and the old Christmas game is that two people standing under it may kiss. The plant is a parasite: it takes water from the tree it sits on. The berries are not a snack — they can make people and pets ill. The name looks a little like missile or toe, but that is not how it was built; the “toe” spelling is an old mix-up.
槲寄生（聖誕節掛著、傳統上會在底下接吻的那種；台灣較少野生可見，多半在電影或裝飾裡碰到）
組成From Middle English mistelto, from Old English misteltān: mistel (the plant itself; also used for birdlime) + tān (a twig or sprig), possibly echoing Old Norse mistilteinn. Later English speakers heard tān as if it were the plural of tā, “toe,” so the spelling became mistletoe. It was not named after a toe.
同家族的字
- mistle thrusha bird named for eating mistletoe berries — same mistle piece
原始詞典資料2 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
mistletoenoun/ˈmɪs(ə)ltəʊ/
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Any of numerous hemiparasitic evergreen plants of the order Santalales with white berries that grow in the crowns of apple trees, oaks, and other trees, such as the European mistletoe (Viscum album) and American mistletoe or eastern mistletoe (Phoradendron leucarpum).
- (all obsolete or archaic)
- Miſtletoe, by phyſicians, &c. called viſcus, grows to the height of about two feet. […] Pliny and moſt naturaliſts relate, that thruſhes being exceedingly fond of the berries of the miſtletoe; they ſwallow them, and caſt them out again on the branches of trees, where they uſe to perch; and by this means give occaſion to a new production of miſtletoe.
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A sprig of one such plant used as a Christmas decoration, associated with the custom that a man may kiss any woman standing beneath it.
- Miſtletoe! why I know what that is, as we garniſh our Houſe with it every Year, at Chriſtmas.
- There were ruddy, brown-faced, broad-girthed Spanish Onions, shining in the fatness of their growth like Spanish Friars; and winking from their shelves in wanton slyness at the girls as they went by, and glanced demurely at the hung-up mistletoe.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。