A Word from ...

A Word about Gardening

When you are next in your garden or backyard creating your own little flowery paradise, you may be using implements that were named in English more than a thousand years ago.

The words ‘horticulture’ and ‘garden’ are, however, relatively new additions to the English language, as the concept of managing land to create beauty rather than food only emerged in the Middle Ages.

‘Garden’ came into the language in the 14th century from Old Northern French gardin, itself a variation of Old French jardin (still used in modern French), which probably has a German origin. ‘Horticulture’ is not recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary until 1678. This word for the art or science of cultivating gardens comes from the Latin hortus, meaning garden, and cultura, meaning growing or cultivation.

The 17th century also saw the creation in American-English of the idea of a ‘backyard’, first recorded in Suffolk, Mass, in 1659. ‘Yard’, however, is one of the oldest words in the English language. It came in around 300 AD as geard ‘building, home, region’, from a Germanic word that is related to ‘garden’ and ‘orchard’. In fact, it is connected to a range of words with the general meaning of ‘enclosure’ that can be seen as far away as the Russian cities of Petrograd and Novgorod , the endings of which come from this group.

Here are some more horticultural words with their first recorded use in the Oxford English Dictionary in brackets.

Shears (c.725) were originally synonymous with scissors, and in some places in Britain still are. The word’s origin is from a Germanic word meaning divide or shave.

Spade (c. 725) was spadu or spada in Old English, another word of Germanic origin. The expression ‘to call a spade a spade’, meaning to speak bluntly, is based on a mistranslation. Plutarch in his Apophthegmata wrote originally of a trough, basin, or bowl, but Erasmus translated the word wrongly, confusing it with another related to the verb ‘to dig’.

Rake (c. 725) came into Old English as raca or racu, from an Old Norse word meaning to scrape or shave.

Seed (c. 825) appears first as sæd and is of Germanic origin, related to the verb ‘to sow’.

Fork (c.1000) is from an Old English word, forca, based on the Latin furca meaning forked stick. The use of the word in English was extended by the influence of the Normans, whose word was furke.

Flower (1225) came into Middle English as ‘flour’, from the Old French flour or flor, in turn from Latin flos or flor. The flour that is used to make bread makes use of flower in the sense ‘the best part,’ and originally meant ‘the finest quality of ground wheat’.

Hoe (1284) comes from Old French houe, in turn from a German word related to the verb ‘to hew’. It was spelled with a ‘w’ until the middle of the 18th century.

Shed (1481) has its origin in the English word shade, which is of Germanic origin.

Ha Ha(1712): this 18th-century garden feature consisted of a trench, the inner side perpendicular and faced with stone, the outer sloping and turfed, that was intended to allow the landowner an uninterrupted view of the countryside. It came from the French word haha ‘an obstacle interrupting one's way sharply and disagreeably, a ditch behind an opening in a wall at the bottom of an alley or walk’. According to French etymologists the ha! is an exclamation of surprise – or could it be fear?

Lawn (1733): ‘Lawn is a great Plain in a Park, or a spacious Plain adjoining to a noble Seat... As to the Situation of a Lawn, it will be best in the Front of the House, and to lie open to the neighbouring Country and not pent up with Trees.’ This was the definition of ‘lawn’ in Miller’s Gardener’s Dictionary of 1733, and was also cited as the first recorded use of the word in that sense in the Oxford English Dictionary. But the word had a much older use as a glade or open area in a wood; it originally comes from a northern British dialect word laund, and from the Old French launde ‘wooded district, heath’, itself of Celtic origin. Where there is a lawn it has to be mown. The lawn-mower was first mentioned in print in 1875, but the verb ‘to mow’ is from the 10th-century word máwan, which has the same German origins as ‘meadow’.

Gazebo (1752): etymologists are not quite sure of the origin of this word describing a decorative building in a garden. Some feel it may be the result of a scholarly joke - a humorous allusion to the word ‘gaze’, imitating the Latin future tense, just as the basin used in the Catholic mass is a ‘lavabo’, meaning ‘I shall wash’. Others think it may come from an unknown oriental word.

Trowel (1796) was originally truel, a 14th-century word for a tool used by masons and plasterers to mould cement. It came from the Old French truele, from the Latin trulla, meaning stirring-spoon. The implement was adapted and used in the garden, and it was first mentioned in a gardening context at the end of the 18th century.

Patio (1828) is a Spanish word. A patio was originally an inner court, open to the sky, in a Spanish or Spanish-American house. Outside Spain it refers to a courtyard or paved area adjoining a house.

Allotment (1674) is a word that has changed very little over time from its original sense of a small plot of land let for a particular purpose, usually to country labourers by their overlords. The word now has a specific meaning in modern British parlance. These days an allotment refers almost exclusively to land let by local authorities to individuals or ‘allotment associations’ for the cultivation of vegetables and flowers. While allotments are still available to country dwellers, they are perhaps more commonly associated with towns and cities, and are not immune to the evils of the big city. According to the Times newspaper of 14 Aug 1917: ‘Holders of municipal allotments claim for loss by malicious damage, the hearts of 700 cabbages having been cut out.’

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