hornbeam
(ˈhɔːnbiːm)
[f. horn n. + beam.]
1. a. A tree of the genus Carpinus (family Betulaceæ), native to Asia, Europe, and North America, esp. C. betulus, the common hornbeam, which is native to Great Britain, or C. caroliniana, the American hornbeam; so called from its hard, close-grained wood.
| 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. ii. (1586) 101 b, Upon the plaines you shall have..the Hornebeame. 1664 Evelyn Sylva xii. §1. 29 The Horn-beam, in Latine the Carpinus, is planted of Sets. 1671 in Early Rec. Providence, R.I. (1893) III. 107 Boundeth on..the norwesterne Corner with a horne beame or peckled tree marked on too sides. 1766 J. Bartram Jrnl. 6 Feb. in Stork E. Florida 62 A hammock of oak, hiccory, magnolia, and hornbeam. 1791 W. Gilpin Remarks on Forest Scenery I. iv. 48 Very nearly allied to the beech..is the hornbeam. It grows like it, when it is suffered to grow; but it is generally seen only in clipped hedges. 1897 Willis Flower. Pl. II. 71 The horn-beam is very like the beech in habit, but the leaves are not shiny. 1968 J. Arnold Shell Bk. Country Crafts xxxi. 330 When threshing was done with flails, the floors were made of hornbeam planks, and until lignum vitae came to this country hornbeam was used for bowls and still is for butchers' blocks. |
b. hop hornbeam, the name of the genus Ostrya, closely allied to the common hornbeam, so called from the hop-like appearance of the ripe catkins; it has two species, O. vulgaris of Southern Europe, and O. virginica of America.
| 1794 Martyn Rousseau's Bot. xxviii. 441 In the common Hornbeam the scales of the strobiles are flat; and in the Hop-Hornbeam they are inflated. 1866 Treas. Bot. 828/1 Ostrya vulgaris, the Common Hop Hornbeam, is a native of the south of Europe, but is quite hardy in the climate of England. 1884 Miller Plant-n., Ostrya virginica, Iron⁓wood (N. American), Hop-Hornbeam, Lever-wood. |
c. attrib. † hornbeam pollenger (see quot.).
| 1597 Gerarde Herbal iii. cix. 1295 Betulus, or the Horne⁓beame tree. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Horn-beam Pollengers, trees of about Twenty Years Growth, that have been often lopp'd, and upon that Account not Tithable. a 1783 J. Scott Ode to Leisure (R.), Where Easna's horn-beam grove Its foliage o'er me interwove. 1838 Murray's Hand-Bk. N. Germ. 94 The avenues and high hornbeam hedges, with windows cut in them. |
† 2. A beam of light issuing like a horn from the head of a deity, etc. Obs.
| 1583 Stanyhurst æneis iii. (Arb.) 91 Lyke..Phœbus his hornebeams. |
3. = beam n.1 12.
| 1861 Wilde Catal. Antiq. R. Irish Acad. 259 A horn⁓beam of an immense red deer. |