▪ I. hazel1
(ˈheɪz(ə)l)
Forms: 1 hæsel, hæsil, hæsl, æsil, 3 hasle, asele, 3–4 hesel, 4–6 hasil, 4–7 -ell(e, 4–8 hasel(e, 5 hesil(l, -yl(le, -elle, 5–6 hasill, 6 -ille, -yll(e, heasle, (Sc. hissill), 6–7 hazell, 6–8 hasle, 7 hassel, hassle, 7– hazel, hazle, (mod.Sc. heazle, heezle).
[OE. hæsel = MDu. hazel(are, Du. hazel(aar, LG. hassel, OHG. hasal masc., hasala fem. (MHG., mod.G. hasel f.), ON. hasl (Sw., Da. hassel):—OTeut. *hasalo-z:—pre-Teut. *kósolos = L. corulus, corylus, OIr. coll (:—*cosl). ON. had also hesli neut. (:—*hasili-) whence app. north. ME. hesel, hesyl, mod.Sc. heezle.]
1. a. A bush or small tree of the genus Corylus, having as its fruit a nut. The European species, C. Avellana, grows to a small tree; the North American species are C. Americana, a shrub forming dense thickets, and the Beaked or Cuckold Hazel, C. rostrata, found in Canada, etc.
There are other species, as the Constantinople hazel or Turkey hazel, C. Colurna, Japanese hazel, C. heterophylla.
| a 700 Epinal Gloss. 236 Corylus, haesil [50 aesil]. a 800 Erfurt Gloss. 536 Corylus, haesl. c 1000 Sax. Leechd. II. 96 Hæsles ragu, & holen rinde niþewearde. c 1205 Lay. 8697 Hasles [c 1275 aseles] þer greowen. a 1307 Thrush & Night. in Hazl. E.P.P. I. 50 Somer is comen with loue to toune..The note of hasel springeth. 1387–8 T. Usk Test. Love iii. vi. 5 If thou desire grapes thou goest not to the Hasell. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xviii. 83 It es lyke vnto þe floure of þe hesill, þat springes oute before þe lefes. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 238/1 Hesyl, tre, corulus. 1538 Leland Itin. V. 67 The Place wher the Town was ys al over growen with Brambles, Hasylles, and lyke Shrubbes. 1578 Lyte Dodoens vi. lviii. 733 There be two sortes of Hasel or wood Nut trees. 1697 Dryden Virg. Past. v. 4 Beneath the grateful Shade, Which Hazles, intermix'd with Elms, have made. 1769 Home Fatal Disc. v, A dell, whose sloping sides are rough With thick-grown hazel. 1861 Delamer Kitch. Gard. 153 The variegated and Purple Hazels are ornamental shrubs of some esteem. |
b. The wood of this tree.
| 1480 Caxton Descr. Brit. 54 Ther is a lake that torneth hasell in to asshe and asshe in to hasell. 1634 Peacham Gentl. Exerc. xxi. 251, I leave it to their [Anglers'] owne discretion, whether to use either Haysell, or Cane. 1665 J. Webb Stone-Heng (1725) 161 Hasle was the Material of which the Stakes were at first made. |
c. A stick or rod of this wood.
| 1603 Owen Pembrokesh. (1891) 276 The horsemens cudgell..to be a hasell. 1649 G. Daniel Trinarch., Rich. II, cxxxv, The Hassle soe will bend (A Rhabdomancie, was observ'd of old) Stretch'd on the Earth, vnto a Mine of Gold. 1686 N. Cox Gentl. Recreat. iv. 71 Let the Angler fit himself with a Hazle of one piece or two set conveniently together. 1748 Richardson Clarissa xxi. (1749) I. 144 Mr. Solmes..fell to gnawing the head of his hazel. |
d. Short for
hazel-nut.
| 1601 Holland Pliny xv. xxii. (R.), As for other nuts, their meat is solide and compact, as we may see in filberds and hazels. |
e. oil of hazel, a jocular name for an oil alleged to be contained in a green hazel rod, and to be the efficacious element in a sound drubbing;
to anoint with oil of hazel, to drub with a hazel rod. So
sap of hazel in the same sense:
cf. hazel-oil, 4 c.
| c 1678 Roxb. Ball. (1882) IV. 359 Take you the Oyl of Hazel strong; With it anoint her Body round. |
2. Applied with qualification to other plants, as
evergreen hazel,
Guevina Avellana;
Australian h.,
Pomaderris lanigera of N.S. Wales,
P. apetala of Victoria;
witch or wych hazel,
q.v. 3. a. The reddish brown colour of a ripe hazel-nut.
b. adj. Of this colour; used
esp. of eyes.
| 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) II. 82 The different colours of the eye are the dark hazle, the light hazle, the green, the blue, the grey, the whitish grey. 1805 T. Harral Scenes of Life I. 52 An eye..the index of an intelligent soul; it was a full, bright hazel. 1829 Lytton Disowned 5 Of a light hazel in their colour. |
| b. 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iii. i. 22 Thou wilt quarrell with a man for cracking Nuts, hauing no other reason, but because thou hast hasell eyes. c 1730 Swift Dick, a Maggot 4 You know him by his hazel snout. 1743–51 G. Edwards Nat. Hist. Birds 69 The Eye of a yellowish Hazel Colour. 1805 Scott Last Minstr. vi. xix, O'er her white bosom stray'd her hazel hair. 1813 ― Rokeby iv. v, Her full dark eye of hazel hue. 1848 Lytton Harold viii. ii, In the quick glance of his clear hazel eye. |
4. a. attrib. and
Comb., as
hazel bank,
hazel bavin,
hazel bough,
hazel bower,
hazel-brush,
hazel bush,
hazel copse,
hazel cover,
hazel leaf,
hazel rod,
hazel staff,
hazel stick,
hazel twig,
hazel wand, etc.;
hazel-hooped,
hazel-leaved adjs.| a 1307 Thrush & Night, 106 in Hazl. E.P.P. I. 54 Fowel, thou sitest on hasel bou. 1473 J. Warkworth Chron. (Camden) 22 (Promp.) It was lytelle as a hesylle styke. 1584 R. Scot Discov. Witchcr. x. vii. (1886) 147 There must be made vpon a hazell wand three crosses. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. ii. i. 255 Kate like the hazle twig Is straight, and slender. 1678 Butler Hud. iii. ii. 1547 He's mounted on a hazel bavin. 1727–46 Thomson Summer 1269 Close in the covert of a hazel copse. c 1786 T. Blaikie Diary of Scotch Gardener (1931) 205 They have had here the famous Charlatain Lebreton who pretends by means of a hazel rod to descover Springs..; he pretend[s] to be taken with a trembling and the rod to turn round upon his hands. 1822 J. Woods 2 Yrs. Res. Eng. Prairie Illinois 206, I dug a piece of prairie-land to sow it on; part of it had some hazle-brush on it. 1828 J. M. Spearman Brit. Gunner (ed. 2) 59 Budge barrels..hazle hooped. 1855 Tennyson Brook 171, I slide by hazel covers. 1858 Hogg Veg. Kingd. 693 Hazel rods have been supposed to have magical properties, as it was of them that the divining-rod was formed. 1864 Sowerby's Eng. Bot. III. 193 Hazel-leaved Bramble. 1880 Encycl Brit. XI. 549/1 The virtue of the hazel wand was supposed to be dependent on its having two forks. 1904 Goodchild & Tweney Technol. & Sci. Dict. 282/2 Hazel rods. Thin rods of hazel are often used for the handles of smiths' tools..which have to be struck by a hammer. 1932 F. L. Wright Autobiogr. i. 46 With scattered hazel-brush and trees. |
b. From sense 3.
| 1769–74 J. Granger Biogr. Hist. Eng. (R.), Cherry cheeked, hazel-eyed, brown haired. 1787 Winter Syst. Husb. 24 Black and hazle colour soils. 1806 Forsyth Beauties Scotl. IV. 228 A deep hazel-coloured loam. 1886 Ruskin Præterita I. v. 141 A dark hazel-eyed, slim-made, lively girl. 1891 Mrs. Alexander Wom. Heart I. 3 Large hazel-brown eyes. |
c. Special combs.:
hazel carpet, a geometer moth,
Cidaria corylata;
hazel crottles, the lichen
Sticta pulmonaria;
hazel-fly,
Phyllopertha horticola, also an artificial fly imitating it;
hazel-hoe, ‘a grubbing hoe for working in brush and bushes’ (Knight
Dict. Mech.); (see also
quot. 1953);
† hazel-mouse [
Ger. haselmaus], the common dormouse (
Muscardinus avellanarius);
hazel-oil (
humorous): see 1 e;
hazel-rag,
-raw = hazel crottles;
† hazel-rise [
cf. Ger. haselreis], a twig or bough of the hazel;
hazel-rough (
U.S.), a hazel copse;
hazel-splitter U.S., a breed of pigs;
hazel-wizard, a diviner by means of a hazel-twig; a water-finder;
hazel-worm [
Ger. haselwurm], the blind-worm (
Maunder's Treas. Nat. Hist. 1854). Also hazel-grouse, etc.
| 1796 Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 4) IV. 55 Lungwort. Hazel Rag, or *Hazel Crottles..On the trunks of old trees. |
| 1787 Best Angling (ed. 2) 117 The Welchman's Button, or *Hasle-Fly. 1883 A. Ronalds Fly-Fisher's Entomol. (ed. 9) 104 Hazel Fly, Coch-A-Bondhu. |
| 1895 Montgomery Ward Catal. 391/2 *Hazel Hoes, weight, 3 pounds, length, 10 in... Hazel Hoe Handles. 1953 Brit. Commonw. Forest Terminol. i. 75 s.v. Hoe. Hazel hoe, a fire trenching or digging tool, resembling a grub hoe but having a shorter, broader and lighter blade, a round or oval eye, and usually a straight pick-like head. |
| 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 423 Of the Nut-mouse, *Hasel-mouse, or Filbird-mouse..so called because they feed upon Hasel-nuts and Filbirds. |
| 1825 Jamieson, *Hazel-oil, a cant term, used to denote a drubbing. 1894 Crockett Raiders 46 Ye shall suffer for this, if there's hazel oil in Dumfries. |
| 1565–73 Cooper Thesaurus, Pulmonaria, after some lungeworte: after other *hasel ragge. |
| 1778 Lightfoot Flora Scot. (1789) 831 Lungwort Lichen..*Hazleraw, Scotis. |
| 13.. K. Alis. 3293 (Bodl. MS.) Whan notte brouneþ on *hesel rys. a 1550 Christis Kirke Gr. xvi, Heich Hutchon with a hissil ryss. |
| 1893 Advance (Chicago) 23 Nov., Among the *hazel-roughs are still a few chewinks. |
| 1865 Trans. Ill. Agric. Soc. (1868) VI. 334 [Those] who prefer the active, energetic ‘*hazel splitters’ to the lazy Berkshire. 1930 Amer. Speech V. 18 Hazel splitter, a wild, lean range hog, a razor-back. |
| 1843 ‘R. Carlton’ New Purchase lii. 206 We had ceased from digging a well, after finding no water at twenty-five feet, although we had employed a great *hazel-wizzard. |
▪ II. ˈhazel2, hazle Also
hassell,
hasel(l.
[Of uncertain origin; known first in attrib. use or comb., and in the adj. hazelly1. Markham's
hassell ground,
hassell earth, correspond to
Ger. hasselboden ‘ground consisting of gravel, reddish clay, and somewhat black earth’ (Grimm), said also to be called in Switzerland
haselerde. The latter implies connexion or association with
hasel hazel1, and some would so explain the word in
Eng., with reference to the colour of hazel ground, its suitableness for hazel, or other reason.]
1. A kind of freestone: see
quots. local.
| 1855 Phillips Man. Geol. Gloss., Hazle, a hard, often cherty, gritstone. 1883 Gresley Gloss. Coal Mining, Hazle, a tough mixture of sandstone and shale. |
2. attrib. and
Comb. Consisting of a mixture of sand or gravel, clay, and earth, as
hazel earth,
hazel ground,
hazel loam,
hazel mould,
hazel soil, etc.
| 1613 Markham Eng. Husbandman i. i. vi. (1635) 36 If it bee a rich hassell ground. Ibid. xiii. 83 Blacke Clay mixt with red Sand, which..is called of Husbandmen an hassell earth. 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 556 Any mixed earths or hasell-grounds which are clayes and sands or clayes and gravells mixed together. 1686 Plot Staffordsh. 341 The manner of tillage that is also given light or hasel mould. 1789 Trans. Soc. Arts I. 165 A field of good hazle loam. 1796 J. Boys Agric. Kent (1813) 70 To make summer-fallows on light land, such as hazel loam, sand, gravel or chalk. 1846 J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) II. 26 On all soils, except those of a deep hazel mould or sandy loam. |