whitten dial.
(ˈhwɪt(ə)n)
Also 6 Sc. veyton, 7 whitting, whiting, 9 witten.
[Usually whitten-tree, repr. OE. hw{iacu}tingtréow, f. hw{iacu}ting (of identical formation with whiting n.) + tréow tree.]
More fully, whitten-tree. A name for the water elder or wild guelder-rose (Viburnum Opulus), and the wayfaring-tree (V. Lantana). Also (by confusion with whicken, quicken n.1), the mountain-ash or rowan (Pyrus aucuparia), and some allied plants.
whitten pear-tree, the service-tree (Pyrus Sorbus): see quot. 1833 s.v. whitty.
| c 1100 ælfric's Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 139/1 Uariculus, hwitingtreow. [Identified by Cockayne as Pyrus Aria, White-Beam-tree.] 1549 Compl. Scot. vi. 67, I sau veyton, the decoctione of it is remeid for ane sair hede. 1578 Lyte Dodoens vi. lxxx. 761 Of Marris Elder, Ople, or Dwarffe Plane tree... I take this to be a shrub that is called in Englishe, Whittentree, whereof are two kindes. 1597 Gerarde Herbal iii. lxxii. 1237 The water Elder is called..in English Marish Elder, and Whitten tree, Ople tree, and Dwarffe Plane tree. 1636 Johnson Gerarde's Herbal Table Eng. Names, Whicken tree, i. wilde Ash... Whitten tree, i. water Elder, or wilde Ash. 1668 Phil. Trans. III. 857 The Whitting or Quicking-tree, (Lat. Fraxinus Sylvestris, and by some Fraxinus Cambro-Britanica). a 1697 Aubrey (Royal Soc. MS. lf. 137) in Britten & Holland Plant-n., About Cranbourn chace growes..a tree with a white leafe..no bigger than a cherry tree; they call it Whiting or White⁓wood. 1847 Halliwell, Whitten, the wayfaring tree. Kent. 1868 Archaeologia XLII. 125 The Rowan or Quick-beam,..popularly termed the Mountain Ash.., and, in some counties, the Whiten-tree and the Witty. |