ˈsloe-tree
Forms: (see quots.); also 9 Sc. and north. slae-.
[f. sloe n. + tree n.]
= prec.
| c 1340 Nominale (Skeat) 655 Slotre, birche, and ellertre. 1382 Wyclif Dan. xiii. 54 Vndir a sloo tree. 14.. Lat.-Eng. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 613 Spinus, a Slotre. 1483 Cath. Angl. 343/1 A Sla tre, spinus, mespila. 1548 Turner Names Herbes (E.D.S.) 65 Prunus syluestris is called in english a slo tree, or a sle tree. 1589 Fleming Virg. Georg. iv. 61 Slo trees bearing damsons now. 1598 Florio. Prugno,..a plum tree, damzon tree or slow tree. 1647 Hexham i. (Trees), A Sloe tree, een wilde Pruymen boom. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Spinus, the Sloe-tree, or Bullace-tree. 1777 Jacob Catal. Plants 90 Prunus spinosa, the Black Thorn, or Sloe Tree. 1842 Tennyson Amphion 44 Poussetting with a sloe-tree. 1882 ‘Ouida’ In Maremma I. 117 Under their thickets of the prickly sloe-tree. |