Etymologically
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willow

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈwɪl.əʊ/[1]
  • US: /ˈwɪloʊ/[1]

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
  • 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)