birch

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to whip with a birch twig

   The criminal was birched in the public square.

2. 2
   verb

   To punish as though one were using a stick, bundle of twigs, or rod made of birch wood.

   That the morrow would see us arraigned 'fore the Head And probably birched with a willow.

3. 3
   adj

   consisting of or made of wood of the birch tree

4. 4
   noun

   a switch consisting of a twig or a bundle of twigs from a birch tree

PIE word *bʰerHǵós From Middle English birche, birk, from Old English birċe, bierċe, from Proto-West Germanic *birkijā, from Proto-Germanic *birkijǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerHǵos. Cognates Compare West Frisian bjirk, German Birke, variant of *berkō (compare Dutch berk, Danish birk, Swedish björk, Norwegian bjørk), Sanskrit भूर्ज (bhūrjá), Lithuanian béržas, Czech bříza, Ossetian бӕрз (bærz), Russian берёза (berjóza)), Latin fraxinus (“ash tree, ash javelin”), Albanian bredh.

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