Etymologically
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arbor

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈɑːbə/[1]
  • US: /ˈɑɹbɚ/[1]

arbor1 bower, shady garden shelter

Etymology

The bower is inherited from Middle English herber, also erber,[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman erber, also herber,[3][5][6] from Old French erbier, herbier (“field, meadow; kitchen garden”),[4][3][5][7] formed from erbe (“herb”) and the suffix -ier,[7][5] or from Late Latin herbārium,[3][8][9] from Latin herba (“grass, herb”).[4][3][10] It is a doublet of herbarium,[3] and its nearest English relative is herb.[10] The change of the first vowel is the regular Middle English one from e to a before r followed by a consonant, as in carve and farm,[3][9][11][4] and the modern spelling was helped by association with Latin arbor (“tree”),[5][7][11][12] although the word is not related to it.[10][4] Weekley adds a confusion with harbor, once a common spelling of the word,[8] and the Middle English Dictionary records forms due to confusion with herberwe.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A garden area of grass and flowers, a herb garden: probably before 1300, in The Thrush and the Nightingale.[3] Middle English used it for a pleasure garden, a herb garden, and a bower covered with flowers.[2]

Semantic evolution

By the mid-14th century the word also meant a grassy plot and a shady nook or bower formed by intertwined trees, shrubs or vines.[4] Etymonline quotes Hensleigh Wedgwood (1859): the bower or rustic shelter usually stood in the most conspicuous place in the garden, and once the reference to herbs was no longer felt, the spelling was adapted to the notion of shelter by trees.[4] According to the OED, as reported by Barnhart, the sense "herb garden" began to separate from "shady place formed by trees" in the mid-16th century.[3] The senses "lawn" and "flower garden" are long obsolete,[5][13] and Weekley thinks the sense of a shaded walk is the latest of all.[8] Chaucer used herber twice, for a garden.[14][8] Johnson (1755) defined arbour as a bower, a place covered with green branches.[15] In 18th-century slang it was also a name for the female genital area.[16]

Timeline

  • probably before 1300 – a garden of herbs or flowers.[3]
  • c. 1300 – a herb garden, a pleasure garden.[4]
  • mid-14th century – a grassy plot; a bower of trees, shrubs or vines.[4]
  • mid-16th century – the shady place separates from the garden of herbs.[3]
  • 1755 – Johnson defines arbour as a bower.[15]
  • 1788 – slang, the female genital area.[16]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A shady bower or retreat formed by trees, shrubs or vines, often trained over a trellis or latticework: They took tea in the shade of the vine arbor.[17][13][5]
  2. (obsolete) A garden of herbs or flowers, or a lawn.[5][13]

Word family

  • arbored

arbor2 shaft, axle, spindle

Etymology

The shaft is borrowed from French arbre (“tree; axis, main piece of a wheel or machine”),[18][5][3][11] later respelled after Latin arbor (“tree”),[18][5][11][19] the source of the French word.[3][19] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster take it straight from the Latin word,[4][17] which also meant a beam, or a wooden part in an olive press.[19][17] Barnhart calls the Latin noun of unknown origin and Klein of uncertain origin;[3][9] Merriam-Webster thinks it perhaps akin to arduus (“steep, high”),[17] and Etymonline, following de Vaan, traces it to the root *eredh- (“to grow, high”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The axle or spindle on which a wheel turns, especially in clocks and watches: 1659, in J. Leak's translation of I. de Caus.[18][3][17]

Semantic evolution

From 1728 the word also meant the main support or beam of a machine such as a crane or a windmill.[18][4] In modern engineering it is above all the shaft or mandrel on which a cutting tool, or the work to be cut, is mounted.[13][17][5]

Timeline

  • 1659 – the axle or spindle of a wheel.[18][3][17]
  • 1728 – the main support or beam of a machine.[18]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A rotating shaft or spindle on which a cutting tool, such as a circular saw or grinding wheel, is mounted.[13][17][5]
  2. A mandrel that holds a workpiece for machining.[13][5][17]
  3. An axle or spindle of a wheel, as in a clock or watch.[17][18]
  4. The main support or beam of a machine such as a crane or windmill.[18][17]
  • arboreal
  • arboreous
  • arborescent
  • arboretum
  • arbor vitae
  • herb
  • herbarium
  • harbor
  • bower
  • Arbor Day

Usage notes

Arbour is the British spelling of the word for a bower, and arbor the American one.[13][17][4][19] The Latin word for a tree is also used as such in English, in Arbor Day, a day for planting trees, and arbor vitae, literally "tree of life", the name of various evergreens, especially a white cedar.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  9. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  10. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  11. ^ a b c d Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  13. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  14. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
  15. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  16. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  17. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  18. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  19. ^ a b c d Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House