Etymologically
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hawthorn

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈhɔː.θɔːn/[1]
  • US: /ˈhɔ.θɔɹn/, /ˈhɔ.θoɹn/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English hawethorn,[2][3][4] inherited from Old English hagaþorn, earlier hæguþorn and hægþorn,[2][5][6][7] a compound from Old English haga (“hedge, enclosure”) + þorn (“thorn”).[6][5][4][3][8] It thus means "hedge thorn", since the shrub was used for hedges.[5][4][9][10] Haga, the source of haw, is from Proto-Germanic *hag-,[5][9] the source also of hedge,[9][5] from Proto-Indo-European *kagh- (“to catch, seize; wickerwork fence”).[5] The same compound is found in Old Dutch haginthorn, Middle Dutch hagedorn, Dutch haagdoorn, Middle High German hagendorn, German Hagedorn, Old Norse hagþorn, Swedish hagtorn and Danish hagetorn.[2][6][5][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The thorny shrub used for hedges: the OED's first record is in the Erfurt Glossary,[6] and Barnhart dates the forms hæguthorn and heagothorn to about 700 and hagathorn to about 950.[2] In Old English it glossed Latin alba spina (“white thorn”), and its leaves and blossoms appear in medical recipes.[7]

Semantic evolution

The tree's name appears in a place name, Hauthorn, about 1220, and as hawethorn probably about 1300.[2] Johnson (1755) described it as the thorn that bears haws, used in England above all for hedges and fences, and quoted Shakespeare's As You Like It.[11] Ayto suggests that the name of the fruit, haw, is a back-formation from hawthorn or a shortening of a lost word like hawberry;[9] Etymonline thinks it perhaps short for an Old English hægberie.[5] Later uses include hawthorn for the hawthorn fly in angling (1884)[6] and, in Devon dialect, for a peg cut out of an upright board for hanging a coat on.[12]

Timeline

  • c. 700 – hæguthorn, heagothorn, the hawthorn shrub.[2][6]
  • c. 950 – hagathorn.[2]
  • c. 1220 – in the place name Hauthorn.[2]
  • c. 1300 – Middle English hawethorn.[2]
  • 1866 – of porcelain decorated with a hawthorn pattern.[13]
  • 1884 – angling, short for hawthorn fly.[6][13]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A thorny shrub or small tree of the genus Crataegus of the rose family, with white or pink flowers and small red fruits called haws, widely planted for hedges; also called may in Britain.[14][3][6][8]
  2. (angling) A hawthorn fly.[6][13]

Word family

  • hawthorny

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  12. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  13. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  14. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins