yew

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   any of numerous evergreen trees or shrubs having red cup-shaped berries and flattened needlelike leaves

   I especially like the durable fine-grained light brown or red wood of the English yew for cabinetwork and archery bows.

2. 2
   noun

   A species of coniferous tree, Taxus baccata, with dark-green flat needle-like leaves and seeds bearing red arils, native to western, central and southern Europe, northwest Africa, northern Iran and southwest Asia.

   Old Yew, which graspest at the stones ⁠That name the under-lying dead, ⁠Thy fibres net the dreamless head, Thy roots are wrapt about the bones.

3. 3
   noun

   The wood of such trees.

   To prevent a too great conſumption of yew, bowyers were directed to make four bows of witch-haſel, aſh or elm, to one of yew, and no perſon under ſeventeen years of age, unleſs poſſeſſed of moveables worth forty marks, or the ſon of parents having an eſtate of ten pounds per annum might ſhoot in an yew bow, under a penalty of 6s. 8d.

4. 4
   noun

   Any tree or shrub of the genus Taxus.

From Middle English ew, from Old English īw, ēow, [both cognates of Welsh yw (“yews”), Irish eo, Old Irish eó respectively]; although the Old English form was conjectured to be from Proto-West Germanic *īhu, from Proto-Germanic *īhwaz (compare Icelandic ýr), masculine variant of *īwō (compare Dutch ijf, German Eibe), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁eyHw-. See also Hittite 𒄑𒂊𒅀𒀭 (eyan, “type of evergreen”), Latgalian īva (“bird cherry”), Lithuanian ievà (“bird cherry”), Russian и́ва (íva, “willow”).

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