catkin Bot.
(ˈkætkɪn)
Also 6 catteken, catken, 8–9 katkin.
[Taken by Lyte from Du. katteken ‘kitten’ and ‘catkin’ of hazel, willow, etc. (in Dodoens), dim. of katte cat. The 16th c. L. catulus, F. chaton (f. chat), and Ger. kätzchen, have the same two senses; the catkin being named from its soft downy appearance: cf. catling 4.]
A unisexual inflorescence, consisting of rows of apetalous flowers ranged in circles along a slender stalk; the whole forming a cylindrical, downy-looking, and generally pendant part, which falls off in a single piece after flowering or ripening; as in the willow, birch, poplar, pine, hazel, etc.; a deciduous spike; an amentum. (Called by Turner 1568 tagge, and by various 16–17th c. writers aglet.)
| 1578 Lyte Dodoens vi. lviii. 733 Leaues spring foorth after the Catkins, agglettes, or blowinges. Ibid. lxvii. 743 Withy..his flower or blossom is lyke a fine throm or thicke set veluet heaped vp togither about a little stemme, the which when it openeth is soft in handling, and lyke downe or Cotton, and therefore the whole flower is called a Chatton, Kitekin or Catteken. 1611 Cotgr., Chattons, the Catkins, Cattails, aglet-like blowings, or bloomings, of nut-trees, etc. 1731–7 Miller Gard. Dict. (J.) The pine tree hath amentaceous flowers or katkins. 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. II. 131 Golden catkins deck the sallow tree. 1860 Gosse Rom. Nat. Hist. 6 The willows..are gay with their pendant catkins. |
Hence catkined ppl. a.
| 1866 Geo. Eliot F. Holt 2 The bushy hedgerows..shrouded the grassy borders..with catkined hazels. 1869 Ruskin Q. of Air §78 Catkined trees, whose blossoms are only tufts and dust. |