tree

Pronunciation

• IPA: /triː/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English tre, tree,^[2][3] inherited from Old English trēow (“tree; timber, wood, beam”), trēo,^[4][2] from Proto-Germanic *trewam,^[4][5] from Proto-Indo-European *drew-o-, a suffixed form of *deru- “to be firm, solid”, specialized as “wood, tree”.^[4][5] It is cognate with Old Frisian trē, Old Saxon trio, Old Norse tré and Gothic triu,^[4][2] and outside Germanic with Greek drûs “oak” and dóru “spear”, Welsh derwen “oak”, Lithuanian dervà “pinewood” and Sanskrit dā́ru “wood”.^[2][5][3] It is not found in High German except in the word for “tar”; the usual German and Dutch words are Baum and boom, related to beam.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English, before 830 in Barnhart,^[2] with the OED's first example of a woody perennial plant from about 825.^[6] Old English trēow also meant “timber, wood, beam, log”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

As Trench noted, the word was once used of dead timber as well as the living plant;^[7] Wycliffe's Bible speaks of vessels “of tree and of erthe”, and the old sense survives in axletree and saddletree.^[7] In Old and Middle English a tree was also a thing made of wood, especially the cross of the Crucifixion and later the gallows, as Tyburn tree.^[4] Middle English had a plural treen and an adjective treen, “wooden”.^[4] In early figurative use it often meant the trees of Eden or the Tree of Life.^[4] The framework of a saddle is from the 1530s,^[4] a family tree, a diagram of descent, from the 13th century.^[5][4] The verb meant “to grow into a tree” from 1650,^[2] and “to chase up a tree” from before 1700,^[2] by 1833 in Etymonline.^[4] Tree frog is from 1738.^[2]

Timeline

• before 830 – Old English trēow.^[2]
• 13th century – a family tree.^[5]
• 1530s – a saddletree.^[4]
• 1650 – verb, to grow into a tree.^[2]
• before 1700 – verb, to chase up a tree.^[2]
• 1738 – tree frog.^[2]
• 1838 – a Christmas tree.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A tall perennial woody plant with a single main trunk and branches, usually forming a crown.
2. Something shaped like a tree, such as a coat stand or a shoe tree.
3. A diagram with branching lines, such as a family tree.
4. A wooden beam or bar forming part of a structure, or (archaic) a gallows or the cross.

Verb

1. To chase an animal up a tree; to corner someone.

Word family

• treeless
• treelike
• treenail
• whiffletree
• treelined

Related words

• true
• trough
• tray
• druid
• tar
• beam

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker