hazel

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English hasel,^[2][3] inherited from Old English hæsel, also hæsl,^[4][5][6][7] from Proto-Germanic *haslaz,^[1][8] from Proto-Indo-European *kóslos (“hazel”),^[1] which Etymonline gives as *koselo- and Barnhart, Hoad and Ayto as *kosolos.^[4][7][6][9] It is cognate with Middle Dutch hasel, Dutch hazelaar, Old High German hasal, German Hasel, Old Norse hasl and Swedish hassel,^[10][7][11] and with Latin corulus or corylus, Old Irish coll and Welsh coll.^[10][4][11] Kroonen notes that the Germanic forms point to *kos-lo-, while the Latin requires a fuller suffix.^[8] Barnhart and Kroonen compare Old Lithuanian kasùlas (“wooden spear, stick”), which Klein thinks perhaps related.^[7][8][11] Some Middle English forms with e (hesel) come from Mercian and Kentish Old English, and in the north partly from Scandinavian, compare Old Norse hesli.^[10][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The hazel shrub or tree: in the Old English Épinal Glossary,^[10] which Barnhart dates to about 700.^[7] Bosworth–Toller records it glossing Latin corylus and in many place names in charters.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word also meant the wood of the hazel, or a branch or shoot of it;^[2][10] the nut, a hazelnut, is recorded from 1601.^[10] The colour sense comes from the ripe nut: Etymonline and Ayto credit Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (1592) with the first use of it for eyes, "Thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking nuts, having no other reason but because thou hast hazel eyes",^[4][9][12] though the OED has the adjective in Lyly's Euphues from 1580 and the noun from 1691.^[10] The colour was at first a reddish brown, and is now more usually a greenish brown, especially of eyes.^[10] The name was later applied to other plants: Australian shrubs of the genus Pomaderris (1827), witch hazel (1867) and a Chilean tree (1871).^[10][13]

Timeline

• c. 700 – Old English hæsl, the hazel tree.^[7][10]
• 1381 – the wood of the hazel.^[10]
• 1580 – adjective, reddish-brown or greenish-brown.^[10]
• 1592 – hazel eyes, in Romeo and Juliet.^[4][9]
• 1601 – a hazelnut.^[10]
• before 1613 – a stick or rod of hazel wood.^[10]
• 1691 – noun, the colour of a ripe hazelnut.^[10]
• 1827 – Australian shrubs of the genus Pomaderris.^[10]
• 1867 – the witch hazel.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A shrub or small tree of the genus Corylus, with rounded leaves, catkins and edible nuts.^[14][13][10]
2. The wood of this tree.^[14][13][10]
3. A hazelnut.^[14][13][10]
4. A light brown to greenish-brown colour, especially of the eyes.^[14][13][10]
5. A stick or rod of hazel wood.^[10][2]
6. Any of several similar shrubs, such as the Australian Pomaderris.^[13][10]

Adjective

1. Of the colour hazel: The boy had hazel eyes and freckles.^[14][13][10]
2. Made of hazel wood or of hazels: a hazel walking stick.^[13]

Word family

• hazelnut
• hazel grouse
• hazel hen
• witch hazel

Usage notes

A separate dialect word hazel, of unknown origin, was used from the early 17th century of light, easily worked soil and of a kind of freestone;^[15] in Northumberland it meant a hard sandstone.^[16] In Devon hazel was also a name for the haw.^[16][13] In American drug slang hazel has meant heroin since 1949.^[17]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ a b 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)
17. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com