oak

Pronunciation

• IPA: /oʊk/, /woʊk/; /əʊk/ (UK)^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English oke, ook, inherited from Old English āc (“oak tree”),^[2][3][4] partly also from Old Norse eik,^[3] from Proto-Germanic *aiks,^[3][5] source also of Old Saxon ēk, Dutch eik and German Eiche,^[2][3] with no certain cognates outside Germanic;^[3][5] Word Origins and MWU relate it to Latin aesculus (“a kind of oak”) and Greek aigilōps.^[6][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The tree: 749 in the OED, about 700 in Barnhart.^[7][2]

Semantic evolution

The usual Indo-European word for oak, *deru-, became English tree, which Etymonline takes to reflect the importance of the oak to the ancient Indo-Europeans.^[3] As Iceland had no oaks, Old Norse eik came to mean any tree there.^[3] English Bibles use oak for Hebrew ēlāh, probably the terebinth (1382).^[7][3] Oak timber, especially for ships, is Old English,^[7] hence Garrick's Heart of oak are our ships.^[6] Other trees resembling oaks were called oak from 1551, including Australian casuarinas from 1802.^[7]

Timeline

• 749 – the tree.^[7]
• before 1000 – oak timber for ships.^[7]
• 1382 – in the Bible, the terebinth.^[7]
• 1551 – other oak-like trees.^[7]
• 1802 – Australian she-oaks.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A large tree of the genus Quercus, bearing acorns.
2. The hard, durable wood of this tree.

Word family

• oaken
• oaklike
• blackjack oak
• black oak

Related words

• acorn
• tree

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press