▪ I. elm, n.
(ɛlm)
Forms: 1 elm, 5–7 elme, 9 dial. elem, ellum, 4– elm. Also 4 ulm, 6 ulme.
[OE. elm str. masc. = OHG. elm str. masc. (whence the derivatives MHG. elme, ilme, ilmene wk. fem.):—WGer. *elmo-z; the same word with difference of ablaut appears as ON. álmr (Sw. alm, Da. alm, ælm) etymologically = L. ulmus. The mod.Ger. ulme, Du. olm, and the Eng. form ulm(e, are due to the influence of the Lat. word.]
1. The name of well-known trees belonging to the genus Ulmus, esp., in England, the Common or Small-leaved Elm (Ulmus campestris), a tree having rough, doubly serrated leaves, flowers nearly sessile, the fruit oblong, deeply cloven and glabrous; in Scotland, the Witch or Wych Elm (Ulmus montana) or the Cork-barked Elm (Ulmus suberosa); in U.S. the White Elm (Ulmus americana).
| c 1000 Sax. Leechd. II. 52 Eft ᵹenim elmes rinde, ᵹebærn to ahsan. 1382 Wyclif Isa. xli. 19, I shal sette in desert fyrr tree and vlm and box togidere. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 138 Elm, tre, ulmus. 1541 Act. 33 Hen. VIII c. 9 §5 Two other bowes..of ashe, elme, wyche, hasyll or other wood mete for the same. 1567 Drant Horace Epist. i. vii. D vj, Our cittizen is now a Corridon. He trimmes his ulmes. 1664 Evelyn Sylva iv. §6 The Elm delights in a sound, sweet and fertile Land. 1750 Gray Elegy iv, Beneath those rugged elms, that yew tree's shade. 1794 Martyn Rousseau's Bot. xvii. 224 Few persons know that the Elm has any flower. 1830 Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 94 The inner bark of the Elm is slightly bitter and astringent. 1850 Tennyson In Mem. xciv. 58 Rock'd the full foliaged elms. 1858 O. W. Holmes One-hoss Shay, Logs from the ‘Settler's ellum’. 1877 E. Peacock N.W. Linc. Gloss. (E.D.S.) Elem, the elm. 1881 Isle Wight Gloss. (E.D.S.) Ellum, an elm. |
2. With distinguishing epithets, denoting the above-named and other species of the genus
Ulmus:
broad-leaved elm,
Ulmus latifolia or
montana;
Chichester elm, also called
American elm,
Ulmus americana;
Dutch elm: see
Dutch A.
adj. 3 c.
witch or
wych elm,
Ulmus montana. Also
yoke elm, the
hornbeam (
Carpinus Betulus).
| 1876 Harley Mat. Med. 423 The Broad-Leaved Elm..60–80 feet high, with rugged bark. 1882 Garden 11 Nov. 419/3 The Chichester Elm..is variously known as the Huntingdon, Scampston, or unfortunately as the American Elm. |
3. fig. with reference to the practice of training vines on elms.
| 1590 Shakes. Com. Err. ii. ii. 179 Thou art an Elme my husband, I a Vine. 1643 Myst. Iniq. 2 Subverting the Protestant Religion, together with the Subjects Liberty, (the Elme of that Vine). |
4. The wood of these trees.
| 1823 P. Nicholson Pract. Build. 261 Elm is another tough and strong species of wood. |
5. Comb., chiefly
attrib., as
elm-dresser,
elm-plank,
elm-shadow,
elm-tree,
elm-wood;
elm-arched,
elm-bordered,
elm-embosomed,
elm-encircled,
elm-fringed,
elm-grey adjs.;
elm-balm, the fluid contained in elm-galls;
elm bark beetle,
elm (leaf) beetle, (see
quots.);
elm butterfly, a butterfly whose larva feeds on the leaves of the elm, as the comma-butterfly (
Grapta comma-album);
Elm City (also
City of Elms)
U.S. (see
quots.);
elm-gall, the gall produced on the different species of elm by the puncture of
Aphis ulmi;
elm-pipe, the trunk of an elm hollowed for use as a drain or water-pipe.
| 1860 Harper's Mag. June 4/1, I wandered through the *elm-arched streets [of New Haven] in solitude as absolute as though I trod the aisles of a primeval forest. 1868 J. R. Lowell Al Fresco (1896) 61 Upon these elm-arched solitudes No hum of neighbor toil intrudes. |
| 1861 Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. V. 42 Galls are also produced on the leaves by the puncture of a cynips, and each gall contains some drops of liquid, which has been called *Elm balm. |
| 1909 Cent. Dict. Suppl., *Elm bark-beetle, a scolytid beetle, Phlæophthorus liminaris, which bores the bark of elm-trees. 1936 Discovery Feb. 41/2 The Elm-Bark Beetle (Eccoptogaster scotylus Fab.) has increased remarkably in recent years and as it carries the fungus of elm disease, its increase is a serious economic problem of the future. 1961 New Scientist 16 Mar. 665/1 DDT..is used to control the elm-bark beetle. |
| 1876 Field & Forest II. 12 One [insect] found destroying the foliage of the elm, pronounced..to be Galeruca calmariensis, the *elm beetle. |
| 1902 C. J. Cornish Naturalist on Thames xxxvi. 224 The *elm-bordered meadows of the Vale of White Horse. |
| 1872 A. S. Packard Study Insects Index 692/1 *Elm butterfly. |
| 1843 Yale Lit. Mag. VIII. 328 Some inconsiderate hard-hearted beauty, that was supposed to reside somewhere in the ‘*City of Elms’. 1871 Schele de Vere Americanisms (1872) 664 New Haven in Connecticut, is known throughout the United States as Elm City, from the number and magnificent size of the elm-trees that adorn the public squares and most of the principal streets. |
| 1596 in Rogers Agric. & Prices III. 578 *Elm dresser 20/. |
| 1839 Clough Poems ii. 11 Field and wood And *elm-embosomed spire. |
| 1777 T. Warton Poems Ode vii, Or grange, or *elm-encircled farm. |
| 1909 Westm. Gaz. 14 Apr. 5/1 The *elm-fringed arm of the Tyburn stream. |
| 1935 E. Bowen House in Paris i. v. 70 The *elm-grey autumn park. |
| 1881 Amer. Naturalist XV. 242 Inquiries about the imported *elm leaf-beetle. |
| 1731 S. Hales Stat. Ess. II. App., Where *elm-pipes lay underground. |
| 1677 Moxon Mech. Exerc. (1703) 173 An Oaken plank, or *Elm plank. |
| 1835 Mrs. Hemans Haunted House, Where the deep *elm shadows fall. |
| 1562 Turner Herbal ii. 169 b, The leues, the boughes, and the barck of the *elm tre, haue a binding vertue. 1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. 52/1 The Elme Tree is of some called All-Heart. 1771 Goldsm. Hist. Eng. ii. 387 Her body was..thrown into a common chest of elm tree. 1832 Tennyson Dream Fair Women 57 Enormous elmtree-boles did stoop and lean Upon the dusky brushwood underneath Their broad curved branches. |
▪ II. elm var. of
helm n. and v.
dial.