cedar

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English cedre, partly inherited from Old English ceder, borrowed from Latin cedrus, and partly borrowed from Old French cedre,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from the same Latin noun,^[2][7][8] from Ancient Greek κέδρος (kédros, “cedar, juniper”).^[3][4][9][8] The Greek word is of uncertain origin;^[3] Merriam-Webster compares Lithuanian kadagys (“juniper”),^[9][10] and Barnhart thinks it probably Semitic, comparing Biblical Hebrew קָטַר (qāṭar, “it smoked”), so that it first meant wood burnt as incense.^[4] The OED notes that the French form is learned, not the regular Old French outcome of the Latin.^[2] The spelling cedar, in imitation of what was wrongly taken for the Latin form, appears from the mid-16th century.^[4][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The cedar of Lebanon, an evergreen conifer: Old English, in ceder-bēam, cedar tree, before 830 in the Vespasian Psalter,^[4][2] and ceder alone about 1000.^[4] The Middle English form cedre is recorded in 1325, in Cursor Mundi,^[4][11] and Anglo-Norman cedre from the first half of the 12th century.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The wood of the tree is named from Cursor Mundi (a1400).^[2] The true cedars are native to the Levant, North Africa and the Himalayas,^[3] but from 1702 the name was given to many trees thought to resemble them, especially in their fragrant, durable wood, such as junipers, Thuja and Cedrela.^[2][3][9] Johnson (1755) gave a long botanical description of the tree.^[13] In Australian slang a cedar was a fool, a wooden head (1953).^[14]

Timeline

• before 830 – ceder-bēam, cedar tree.^[4]
• c1000 – ceder.^[4]
• 1325 – cedre.^[4]
• a1400 – the wood of the cedar.^[2]
• mid-16th century – the spelling cedar.^[4]
• 1702 – any of various trees resembling the cedar.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A tall evergreen conifer of the genus Cedrus, with spreading branches, needle-like leaves and upright cones, such as the cedar of Lebanon and the deodar.
2. Any of various other coniferous trees with fragrant, durable wood, such as some junipers and thujas.
3. The wood of any of these trees: a chest lined with cedar.

Word family

• cedary
• cedarn
• cedarwood
• cedar apple
• cedar chest

Related words

• deodar
• citron
• juniper

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
11. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
12. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com