fucus

plural fuci · plural fucuses · alternative fukes

1. Any alga of the genus Fucus.

   Sea-weeds, consisting of different species of fuci, algæ, and confervæ, are much used as a manure on the sea-coasts of Britain and Ireland.

   a. 1813, Sir Humphry Davy, "Lecture VI" in Elements of Agricultural Chemistry (1840 reprint)

   1 more example

   One of the feeblest of these inlets, after winding for some time among buried fragments of masonry, and knots of sunburnt weeds whitened with webs of fucus, stays itself in an utterly stagnant pool beside a plot of greener grass covered with ground ivy and violets.

   1853, John Ruskin, “Torcello”, in The Stones of Venice, volume II (The Sea-Stories), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, § I, page 11

2. obsoletecosmeticsA skin cosmetic, a wash or colouring for the skin.First known use 17th c.

   1 more example

   And to morrowe morning, ¶ I’le ſend you a perfume, firſt to reſolue ¶ And procure ſweat, and then prepare a Bath ¶ To clenſe, and cleare the Cutis; againſt when, ¶ I’le haue an excellent new Fucus made, ¶ Reſiſtiue 'gainſt the ſunne, the raine, or wind, ¶ Which you ſhall lay on with a breath, or oyle, ¶ As you beſt like, and laſt ſome fourteen howres,[…]

   1603 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, Seianus His Fall, London: […] G[eorge] Elld, for Thomas Thorpe, published 1605, →OCLC, Act II

3. figurativelyobsoleteA veil, pretense, mask; an artifice, deception.
4. obsoleteAny dye or colouring.