abele
(əˈbiːl, ˈeɪbəl)
Also 7–8 abeele, abeal, abeile.
[a. Du. abeel (abeel-boom), a. OFr. abel, earlier aubel (albel), north Fr. aubiel:—late L. albell-us (found in 12th c., applied to this tree), dim. of alb-us, white. (See Diez 351, and Grimm Dict. I. 22.).]
The white poplar tree (Populus alba).
| 1681 Lond. Gaz. mdclxii. 4 If any Person desire to be furnished with young Abeele Plants..they may be furnished with what quantity they please,..at 10s. a hundred. 1681 Worlidge Syst. Agric. 96 The Abele-tree is a finer kind of white Poplar, and is best propagated of Slips from the Roots. 1703 Art's Improvement I. 33 The whitest Wood, and such as the Grain is least visible in, is fitest for this purpose; as Aspen, Abel, Sycamore, Maple or good white Beech. 1725 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Poplar, There is a finer sort of white Poplar, which the Dutch call Abele, and is transported hither from Holland. Ibid. s.v. Garden-fences, Lime-trees or Horse Chesnuts, whose Roots do less harm than those of Elms, Abeals, or almost any other Tree. 1730 Swift Wks. II. 636 You have cut down more plantations of willows and abeles than would purchase a dozen such islands. 1850 Mrs. Browning Poems II. 49 Six abeles i'the kirkyard grow, on the north-side in a row. 1859 Kingsley Plays & Puritans (1873) 76 The one great abele tossing its sheets of silver in the dying gusts. |