willow

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English wilwe, also wilghe,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English welig,^{[5][6][7][8][9]} from Proto-Germanic *wiligaz.^[10] Related Germanic forms are Old Frisian wilig, Old Saxon wilgia, Middle Low German wilge, Middle Dutch wilghe, Dutch wilg and Middle High German wilge.^{[4][5][7][11]} The Old English word is also related to wilige (“wicker basket”).^[5][12][13] The OED calls the history of the form obscure: the regular outcome of welig would be “*welly”, and the change of vowel may come from “wilige” or from an unrecorded “*wilig”, while the ending “-ow” is paralleled by bellows beside belly and fellow beside felly.^[5][7][4] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster connect it with Ancient Greek ἑλίκη (helíkē, “willow”),^[4][3][12] and Barnhart notes the name of Mount Helicon, "willow mountain".^[4] Etymonline, following Watkins, derives the group from Proto-Indo-European *wel- (“to turn, revolve”),^[7][8] and Klein from the same base, meaning "to roll", which also gave Latin volvō (“to roll”).^[11] The more usual Germanic name of the tree survives in withy.^[7][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

A willow tree: in Old English glosses such as the Blickling Glosses, where on welgum renders Latin in salicibus, "on the willows".^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

Barnhart dates the Middle English form wilwe to about 1325 and welew to about 1340.^[4] From 1490 the word also meant the wood or osiers of the tree;^[5] from 1548 it was also extended, with a qualifying word, to plants of other genera that look like willows.^[5] From the 1580s the willow was a symbol of grief for an unrequited love or a lost mate, as in to wear the willow;^[5][7] Johnson (1755) described it as a tree worn by forlorn lovers.^[14] The adjective willowy meant "bordered with willows" in 1766 and "slender and graceful" from 1791.^[4] The willow pattern on blue china, imitating Chinese designs, is dated by Weekley to 1780,^[13] and its name by Etymonline to 1829.^[7] In the 19th century a willow was also a textile machine for opening and cleaning fibres (1835), with a verb to willow,^[5][3] and a cricket bat made of willow wood from 1846.^[5][7] In English dialect the word was used in many compounds and forms such as willy and willa.^[15]

Timeline

• before 750 – Old English welig, the tree.^[4][5][6]
• c. 1325 – Middle English wilwe.^[4]
• 1490 – the wood or osiers of the willow.^[5]
• 1548 – plants of other genera resembling the willow.^[5]
• 1584 – symbol of grief for lost or unrequited love.^[5][7]
• 1832 – in allusion to its pliability.^[5]
• 1835 – a machine for cleaning textile fibres; verb, to put fibres through it.^[5]
• 1846 – a cricket bat.^[5][7]
• 1922 – a pale green colour, willow green.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of many trees and shrubs of the genus Salix, with narrow leaves, flowers in catkins and flexible branches.^[12][8][3]
2. The wood of these trees.^[8][12][5]
3. Something made of willow wood, especially a cricket bat.^[8][12][5]
4. A machine with revolving spikes that opens and cleans raw textile fibres.^[8][12][5]

Verb

1. To open and clean textile fibres with a willow.^[3][5]

Word family

• willowlike
• willowish
• willowware
• willowy
• pussy willow
• water willow

Related words

• withy
• helix
• volute

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
11. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ 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)