pine

Pine, the tree, comes from Latin pīnus, while pine, to languish, is from Old English pīnian, to torment, which may go back to Latin poena, punishment.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /paɪn/^[4]

pine¹ tree

Etymology

It is Old English borrowed from Latin pīn- (“pine tree”), in compounds such as pīntrēow,^[2][5] coalescing in Middle English with Old French pin, also from Latin pīnus.^[1][2][5] Latin pīnus is cognate with Greek pítus, pine, and Sanskrit pītudāru, pine tree,^[1][2][3] perhaps from PIE *pi-nu-, from *peyh₁-, to be fat, swell, in reference to its sap or pitch.^[1] The native Old English word was furh, fir.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The tree, in compounds: about 1000;^[2] pin about 1150, and pine before 1325, in the Cursor Mundi.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Fowler noted that the Scotch fir is in fact a pine and that the distinction concerns the botanist more than the man in the street.^[1] Pine-top, cheap illicit whiskey, is Southern US slang by 1858.^[1] The pineapple first meant a pine cone (14th century) and was applied to the tropical fruit in the 17th century.^[5][2]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – pīn- in compounds.^[2]
• c. 1150 – pin.^[2]
• 14th century – pineapple, a pine cone.^[5]
• 1858 – pine-top (slang).^[1]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. An evergreen coniferous tree of the genus Pinus, with needle-shaped leaves and woody cones.
2. The wood of such a tree.
3. Any of various similar trees or plants.

Word family

• pine cone
• pine needle
• pine nut
• pinewood

pine² languish

Etymology

It is Middle English pinen, inherited from Old English pīnian (“to torture, torment, cause to suffer”),^[1][2][3] from an assumed Old English *pīn, pain, punishment,^[1][2][3] a general Germanic word (compare German Pein and Old Norse pína),^[1][5] possibly from Medieval or Vulgar Latin *pēna, from Latin poena (“punishment, penalty”) (see penal, pain),^[1][2][3] which probably entered Germanic with Christianity.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

To cause to suffer: before 899, in Alfred's translation of Orosius.^[2]

Semantic evolution

To torture or crucify is from about 1125, and to torment or punish from 1137.^[2] To cause to starve is from about 1300,^[1] and to waste away with hunger, pain or desire, the main modern sense, from the early 14th century (before 1325),^[1][2] through the Middle English senses endure penance, suffer.^[1] To be consumed with longing is from the 16th century.^[5] The OED records an old noun pine, punishment, suffering, grief, from about 1160.^[6]

Timeline

• before 899 – to cause suffering.^[2]
• c. 1125 – to torture.^[2]
• c. 1300 – to starve.^[1]
• before 1325 – to waste away.^[2]
• 16th century – to long for.^[5]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To feel a lingering longing, often for something lost.
2. To waste away from longing or grief.

Noun

1. (archaic) Intense longing or grief.

Word family

• pining
• repine

Related words

• pineapple
• pain
• penal
• punish

Usage notes

In Somerset dialect a pine was a pen for sheep or cattle, and in County Antrim the black-headed gull.^[7]

References

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