Noun: hornbeam
| Singular | hornbeam |
| Plural | hornbeams |
Sample Sentences
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The Horn-beam, in Latine the Carpinus, is planted of Sets; though it may likevviſe be raiſed from the Seeds, […] Thus it vvill advance to a conſiderable Tree. [1664, J[ohn] E[velyn], “Of the Horn-Beam”, in Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesties Dominions. […], London: […] Jo[hn] Martyn, and Ja[mes] Allestry, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC, page 29:]
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Betulus, or the Hornebeame tree grovveth great, & very like vnto the Elme, or vvich Hazell tree, hauing a great body: the vvood or timber vvherof […] in time it vvaxeth ſo hard, that the toughnes and hardnes of it, may be rather compared vnto horne then vnto vvood, and therfore it vvas called Hornebeame, or Hardbeame: […] [1597, John Gerarde [i.e., John Gerard], “Of the Hornebeame, or Hardbeame Tree”, in The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes. […], London: […] Edm[und] Bollifant, for Bonham and Iohn Norton, →OCLC, book III, page 1295:]
Nouns inflected like hornbeam
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
1. From Late Middle English hornbeme, hernbem, hernebem (“European hornbeam (Carpinus betulus)”), from horn (“antler or horn of an animal; etc.”) + bem (“tree; piece of metal, wood, etc.”) (referring to a tree with wood as hard as horn):
2. * Horn is from Old English horn (“horn”), from Proto-West Germanic *horn (“horn”), from Proto-Germanic *hurną (“horn”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱerh₂- (“horn; head, top”).
3. * Bem is from Old English bēam (“tree; piece of wood”), from Proto-West Germanic *baum (“tree; piece of wood”), possibly from Proto-Germanic *bagmaz (“tree; piece of wood”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰh₂ǵʰ-mo-s (“branch”) or *bʰuH- (“to appear; to be; to become; to grow”).
4. By surface analysis, horn + beam (“only in compounds: tree”). See: Middle English Nouns '
hornbeme', Old English Nouns '
horn'.