yew

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English ew, also eu,^[2][3][4][5] inherited from Old English īw, also ēow,^{[6][3][2][7][5]} from Proto-Germanic *īhwaz,^[1][8] which Kroonen and Barnhart reconstruct as *īwa-.^[9][5] It is cognate with Middle Dutch īwe, Dutch ijf, Old High German īwa, German Eibe and Old Norse ýr (“yew; bow”).^[6][3][5][4] The spelling yew is recorded from about 1450.^[5] Further related, though the exact relationship is unclear, are Old Irish eó (“stem, shaft, yew”), Welsh yw (“yew trees”), Ancient Greek οἴη (oíē, “service tree”), Latin ūva (“grape”) and Lithuanian ieva (“bird cherry”);^[6][9][4] Etymonline derives them from Proto-Indo-European *ei-wo-, perhaps from a root meaning reddish or motley,^[3] and Kroonen calls it a European word.^[9] Old English also had īh, the yew and the name of a rune, with a different suffix.^[6] French if comes from the Gaulish cognate of the Celtic forms according to the revised OED and Klein,^[6][4] but from Germanic according to the 1989 edition of the OED.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The yew tree: in the early Old English Corpus Glossary, where iuu glosses Latin taxus.^[6] Barnhart dates the Old English word to before 800.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Already in Old English the word also meant the tree's wood, especially as the material of bows,^[6] and Etymonline dates references to yew as good bow wood from about 1400.^[3] In Old Norse the cognate came to mean the bow itself,^[6][10] and English poets used yew in that sense from 1605.^[6][2] Because it is both poisonous and long-lived, the tree came to stand for death and immortality and was long planted in churchyards;^[3] from before 1450 sprigs of yew served as symbols of sadness.^[6][2] In the 17th century the name was briefly given to some flowering plants with yew-like leaves.^[6] Johnson (1755) described it simply as a tree of tough wood, and preferred the spelling yew to eugh.^[11]

Timeline

• before 800 – the yew tree.^[5] The OED's first record, glossing Latin taxus, is from the early Old English Corpus Glossary.^[6]
• Old English – the wood of the yew, especially for bows.^[6]
• before 1325 – Middle English ew.^[5]
• c. 1450 – the spelling yew.^[5]
• before 1450 – yew branches as symbols of sadness.^[6]
• 1605 – in poetry, a bow made of yew.^[6]
• 1653 – plants likened to the yew (obsolete by 1674).^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of several evergreen coniferous trees or shrubs of the genus Taxus, especially the European Taxus baccata, with flat needles and seeds in a red, berry-like cup.^[12][2][6]
2. The heavy, fine-grained, elastic wood of the yew, prized for bows and cabinetwork.^[12][2][6]
3. (archaic) A bow made of yew wood.^[2][12][6]
4. (archaic) Yew twigs or branches as symbols of grief.^[2][6]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins