cedar
(ˈsiːdə(r))
Forms: 1 ceder, -or, 3–6 cedre, (4 cedri), 4–5 cedir, -ur, -yr, (cyder, -yr, sydyr), 6 ceder, 6– cedar.
[ME. cedre, a. OF. cedre, ad. L. cedrus, ad. Gr. κέδρος; (the OF. repr. of cedrus would have been cierre). OE. ceder was directly ad. Lat.]
1. a. A well-known evergreen conifer, the Pinus Cedrus of Linnæus, Abies Cedrus, Cedrus Libani of other botanists, called Cedar of Lebanon from its most famous early locality.
| c 1000 Ags. Ps. xxviii[ix]. 5 Se God brycð þa hean ceder on Libano. a 1300 Cursor M. 1379 Þe fader in cedre þou sal take, A tre of heght, þat has no make. a 1300 E.E. Psalter ciii. 16 Þe cedres of Yban Whilk he planted with his hand. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. xxiii. (Tollem. MS.) The cedre is moste hyȝe tre, lady and quene of all tren. a 1520 Myrr. Our Ladye 282 Cedre, is a tree..so durable that yt rotteth neuer. 1560 Bible (Genev.) Song of Solomon i. 17 The beames of our house are cedars and our rafters of firre. 1588 Shakes. Tit. A. iv. iii. 45 Marcus we are but shrubs, no Cedars we. 1725 Berkeley Prop. Wks. III. 222 Tall cedars that sheltered their orange trees from the north wind. c 1854 Stanley Sinai & Pal. ii. (1858) 140 To them the cedar was a portent, a grand and awful work of God. |
b. The wood of this tree.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 8007 Wandis..Of cydyr, pyne, and of cypress. c 1400 Mandeville ii. 10 Cedre may not, in Erthe ne in Watre, rote. 1430 Lydg. Chron. Troy ii. xi, The tymbre..Was halfe of Cedre as I reherse can. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 626 With Smoak of burning Cedar scent thy Walls. 1751 Chambers Cycl., Cedar is of so dry a nature, that it will not endure to be fastened with iron nails. 1847 Tennyson Princ. ii. 331 In halls Of Lebanonian cedar. |
2. Applied to the genus
Cedrus, or sub-genus of
Abies, which contains beside the Cedar of Lebanon, the Mount Atlas or Silvery Cedar (
A. or C. atlantica) and the Deodara or Indian Cedar (
A. or C. Deodara). The distinguishing character of cedars consists in the evergreen leaves disposed, many together, in fascicles, and the erect cones with their carpels separating from the axis.
3. Applied, with or without distinguishing epithet, to various trees more or less resembling the true cedar: including species of
Cedrela,
Juniperus,
Thuja,
Cupressus,
Pinus, etc.:
e.g. Barbados cedar,
Bermuda cedar,
Canary cedar,
pencil-wood cedar,
prickly cedar,
Virginia red cedar,
white cedar, which are species of Juniper;
Barbados bastard cedar,
Brazilian cedar,
Chinese cedar,
East Indian cedar,
falsa cedar,
Honduras cedar,
Jamaica cedar,
red Australian cedar,
Singapore cedar,
West Indian cedar, which are species of Cedrela;
British Columbian cedar,
Californian cedar,
white cedar, which are Thujas;
Bussaco cedar,
Goa cedar,
Oregon white cedar,
Port Orford white cedar, which are Cypresses.
bastard cedar, in different countries, applied to species of
Cedrela,
Dysoxylon,
Guazuma,
Icica. The ‘cedar’ used for black lead pencils is the wood of
Juniperus bermudiana and virginiana, which also yield
oil of cedar. Also
Cape cedar,
Widdringtonia juniperoides;
Dominica c.,
Bignonia Leucoxylon;
incense c.,
Libocedrus;
Japan c.,
Cryptomeria japonica;
Queensland c.,
Pentaceras australis;
red Californian c.,
Libocedrus decurrens;
Russian c.,
Pinus Cembra;
water c.,
Chamæcyparis.
| 1703 Art's Improv. I. 26 Above all, is commended, the Oil of Cedar, or that of Juniper. 1725 Sloane Jamaica II. 128 Cedar Tree [Juniperus Barbadensis]..It has a reddish, not close but lax, odoriferous wood. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., The cedar brought from Barbadoes and Jamaica is a spurious sort. Cedar cups..are made out of the wood of the bastard cedar. 1756 P. Browne Jamaica 13 The cedar [Cedrela odorata] and mahogany..may be raised with little care in all the waste hilly lands. 1794 Martyn Rousseau's Bot. xxix. 459 Bermuda Cedar is..imported for encasing black lead in pencils. 1856 Olmsted Slave States 151 The main production [of the Great Dismal Swamp] has been of cypress and juniper, the latter commonly known as white cedar, at the North. 1872 Oliver Elem. Bot. ii. 247 The wood of Juniperus virginiana is commonly used for ‘lead pencils’, under the name of Red Cedar. 1880 ‘Silver & Co.’ S. Africa (ed. 3) 125 They are patches of Cape Cedar..and this is the only locality in which the tree is found. |
4. attrib. and
Comb., as
cedar beam (
OE. = tree),
cedar forest,
cedar-nut,
cedar parlour,
cedar-pencil,
cedar pillar,
cedar-rail,
cedar shade,
cedar top,
cedar-tree,
cedar-wood;
cedar-coloured,
cedar-like adjs.; also
cedar apple,
cedar ball, a hard brown excrescence formed on cedar trees by various rusts;
cedar-bird, the American Wax-wing,
Ampelis carolinensis, a species of Chatterer haunting cedar-trees;
cedar chest U.S., a chest made of cedar-wood for the protection of clothing, etc., from moths and other insects;
cedar-nut, the seed of
Pinus Cembra;
cedar-swamp N. Amer., a swamp in which the cedar is the prevailing tree.
| 1849 C. Lyell Second Visit to U.S. II. 244 The cedar..is often covered at this season with what is termed here the *cedar apple. 1882 Whitman Specimen Days 87 These cedar-apples last only a little while..and soon crumble and fade. |
| 1889 Cent. Dict., Cedar-apple..[is] also called *cedar-ball. |
| c 1000 Ags. Ps. ciii[iv]. 16 Cwice *ceder-beamas, þa ðu cuðlice sylfa ᵹesettest. 1611 Bible 1 Kings vii. 2 With Cedar beames upon the pillars. |
| 1791 W. Bartram Trav. Carolina (1792) 288 Ampelis garrulus; crown bird or *cedar bird. 1871 Lowell Study Wind. (1886) 7 A flock of cedar-birds comes. 1883 Century Mag. Sept. 686/2 Three nests of the cedar-bird..in a single orchard. |
| 1836 W. Irving Astoria I. 154 A *cedar canoe. |
| 1775 in Essex Inst. Hist. Coll. XIII. 178 A Pane of Looking Glass in the same Trunk or the *Cedar Chest. 1895 Century Mag. July 323/2 Cedar-chest and camphor-trunk and flowered band-box have been called upon to disgorge their treasures. 1910 J. Hart Vigilante Girl 219 A cedar chest full of finery made for a carnival dance. |
| 1807 Vancouver Agric. Devon (1813) 36 A *cedar-coloured soil equally well-stapled. |
| 1802 Southey Thalaba i. xxii, The woodman's axe Open'd the *cedar-forest to the sun. |
| 1631 B. Jonson New Inn iii. i. (R.) His tall And growing gravity so *Cedar-like. |
| 1863 Mrs. Atkinson Tartar Steppes 57 Each lady having a plate in her hand filled with *cedar nuts, which she was occupied in cracking and eating. |
| 1878 Morley Diderot II. 48 The atmosphere of the *cedar-parlour. |
| 1869 ‘Mark Twain’ Innoc. Abr. 398 Your friend's *cedar-pencil in your pocket. 1879 Boy's Own Paper 18 Jan. 14/3, I generally carry a great many cedar pencils. |
| 1611 Bible 1 Kings vii. 2 Foure rowes of *Cedar pillars. |
| 1856 Olmsted Slave States 151 Rough poles of the juniper, under the name of ‘*cedar-rails’, are sent to New York. |
| a 1835 Mrs. Hemans Graves of Househ., The Indian knows his place of rest, Far in the *cedar shade. |
| 1637 in New Plymouth Col. Rec. (1855) I. 51 A parcell of land..betweene the two *cedar swamps at Iland Creeke Pond. 1793 J. MacDonell Diary 18 June in C. M. Gates Five Fur Traders (1933) 81 A ditch..which nature seems to have made through the centre of a cedar Swamp. 1876 Page Adv. Text-bk. Geol. xiv. 267 The pine-barrens and cedar-swamps of America. 1904 S. E. White Blazed Trail Stories vi. 87 The high beech-ridge..ended in a narrow cedar-swamp. |
| 1592 Shakes. Ven. & Ad. 858 *Cedar tops and hills seem burnished gold. |
| c 1000 Ags. Ps. xxviii[ix]. 5 Þæs Godes word brycþ *cedor-treowu. 1611 Bible Numb. xxiv. 6 As Cedar trees beside the waters. ― Ezra iii. 7 Cedar trees from Lebanon. 1719 De Foe Crusoe (1840) I. xvi. 272, I pitched upon a..cedar-tree. |
| 1611 Bible 1 Chron. xxii. 4 They of Tyre, brought much *Cedar wood to Dauid. 1887 Whitaker's Almanack 442 Among the chief exports of Costa Rica are tortoise-shell and cedar-wood. |