alder

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   any tree or shrub of the genus Alnus in the birch family, typically growing in cool, moist ground and bearing catkins and small woody cones

   A line of alder grew beside the marshy stream.

2. 2
   noun

   the soft, workable wood of an alder tree

   The cabinetmaker chose alder for the drawer fronts.

Inherited from Middle English alder or aldre, from Old English alor, and ultimately from a Germanic tree name also reflected in Old High German elira. Alder by itself names both the Alnus tree or shrub and its wood, so alder tree is a transparent expanded form rather than a separate botanical lexeme.

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