æsp

Old-English: æps (f. ō-St.?), æpse, æspe, aespae, aespe, espæ, esp, æspan,

Latin (Machine generated): ABIES, ARBUTUS, SICOMORUS UEL CELSA, TREMULOS, TREMULUS,

• æsp-hangra;
• →æsp-rind;

• A: plant: native
  Populus tremula L., aspen, Espe
• B: plant: native Clapham (1962,580): possibly native in wet-woods and stream sides.
  Populus nigra L., black poplar, Echte Schwarz-Pappel
• C: plant: native Clapham (1962,579): possibly native in damp and wet woods
  Populus x canescens (Aiton) Sm., grey poplar, Grau-Pappel

• Comment on (A): Populus tremula L., aspen, Espe

  Only TREMULUS denotes Populus L.; all other glosses are inaccurate. Biggam (2003, 215) concludes her word study: "It is suggested, therefore, that OE æspe should be defined as 'an aspen, black poplar and/or grey poplar'. Depending on local conditions and individual usage, the term may refer to one of these, any two, or all three."

  ABIES denotes 'fir tree, Tanne' (cf. →gyr, →gyr-trēow, →sæppe) and is glossed etspe in Cp 36 which is probably a corrupted form of sepe (cf. →sæppe). The glosses æps, æspe can be traced back to the Corpus Glossary and probably are "attempts to make sense of the MS etspe" (Wynn 1961,296). Biggam (2003,201) summarises: „[...] æspe-type words in association with Lat. ABIES do not represent an anglicization of the Latin word, but an original association with OE sæppe 'spruce fir' which became confused with æspe as the result of copying errors." The Abies Mill. was not grown in England until the 17th century, therefore, ABIES being a synonym of TREMULUS for (some) OE writers cannot be recjected (cf. Biggam 2003, 202).

  L SYCOMORUS denotes 'Ficus sycomorus L., mulberry fig, Esels-Feige; based on a confusion with MORUS it may also denote 'Morus nigra L., mulberry, Maulbeerbaum'; CELSA is a synonym of MORUS (cf. André 1985,svv.). But in this case OE æps belongs to TREMULUS of the preceding gloss: cf. AntK 129,3: CRESIS cwictreow, TREMULUS; Hindschi notes: "Thus in J also; WW omits TREMULUS".

  ARBUTUS denotes Arbutus unedo L., 'strawberry tree, Erd­beerbaum' in L; in ML the 'crab apple tree, Holzapfelbaum'. Biggam (2003, 202-203) attempts to explain this strange gloss (but at the same time notes that it may simply be a lapse of the copyist or some other error): Provided the the source of the Corpus Glossary is a Greek-Latin glosssary with the entries κὁμαρος ARBUTUS or COMAROS ARBUTUS the translator could have had trouble finding the correct OE equivalent. Inspired by the relation κὁμη 'hair of the head' and COMA 'the foliage (of trees)' he could have sought for a 'long-haired' tree which consequently led him to think of poplars, "either because each leaf grows at the end of a long hair-like stalk, or because this causes an overall 'floppy' effect in poplar foliage" (2003, 203).

• Comment on (B): Populus nigra L., black poplar, Echte Schwarz-Pappel

  Biggam (2003, 215) concludes her word study: "It is suggested, therefore, that OE æspe should be defined as 'an aspen, black poplar and/or grey poplar. Depending on local conditions and individual usage, the term may refer to one of these, any two, or all three'."

• Comment on (C): Populus x canescens (Aiton) Sm., grey poplar, Grau-Pappel

  Biggam (2003, 215) concludes her word study: "It is suggested, therefore, that OE æspe should be defined as 'an aspen, black poplar and/or grey poplar. Depending on local conditions and individual usage, the term may refer to one of these, any two, or all three'."