greenheart
(ˈgriːnhɑːt)
[See green a. and heart n. 18, 30.]
1. The name of several West Indian trees remarkable for the quality of their wood. a. A large lauraceous tree of Guiana, Nectandra Rodiæi, which furnishes very hard timber. b. The cogwood tree, Ceanothus Chloroxylon. c. A small rhamnaceous tree, the Colubrina ferruginosa of Jamaica. d. bastard greenheart or false greenheart, a small myrtaceous tree, Calyptranthes Chytraculia.
| 1756 P. Browne Jamaica 187 The Greenheart or Cogwood tree..It is generally esteemed one of the best timber-woods in the island. Ibid. 239 Bastard Green-heart..is generally reckoned an excellent timber-wood. 1769 E. Bancroft Nat. Hist. Guiana 333 They contentedly recur to the use of Sipera, or Green-Hart-tree Apples. 1839 M. J. Higgins Ess. (1875) xvii, Moras, greenhearts, and silk⁓cotton trees, rearing their heads far above the other giants of the forest. 1858 Penny Cycl. Supp. II. 682/2 The Bibira, or Greenheart Tree. 1875 Bedford Sailor's Pocket Bk. ix. (ed. 2) 336 The Morra and Greenheart of British Guiana. |
2. The timber of Nectandra Rodiæi, used in shipbuilding, for fishing-rods, etc. Also attrib.
| 1794 Rigging & Seamanship I. 151 Green-heart, a wood imported from the West Indies, used for the pins of blocks. 1863 Times 19 Mar. 14/2 In the main and lower decks, teak, mahogany, and greenheart are used almost exclusively. 1875 J. D. Heath Croquet Player 26 Handles are generally made of ash, but greenheart and Canadian rock elm are more springy and elastic. 1884 Times 26 Mar. 10 New greenheart planks have been put in where the worst chafing had occurred. 1887 J. Cummins Catal., Hints to Anglers, The best Rods are composed of Hickory butts, Greenheart centres, with Greenheart or Washaba tops. |
b. A fishing-rod made of this wood.
| 1884 Blackw. Mag. Mar. 344/1 It was an Irish greenheart. 1894 Ibid. July 67 The rod..was a 13-foot single-handed greenheart with one splice. |