2 2 Yew- Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



ment of the leaves ; or it may refer to rogov, a 

 bow ; or to toxicum, poison, the common yew being 

 poisonous. It is more likely that ro^ov, a bow, is 

 derived from the name of the plant. 



According to Dr. Johnson our word 'yew' is 

 derived from the original Anglo-Saxon 7f>, or 

 Welsh yw, but Dr. Price traces it to the Latin 

 word Iva, which also includes the ivy. Mr. J. G. 

 Gumming 1 gives the following meanings of the 

 word yew : ' Yew is ancient British, and signifies 

 existent and enduring, having the same root as 

 Jehovah, and yew in Welsh means it is, being 

 one of the forms of the third person present indica- 

 tive of the auxiliary verb bod, to be.' 



The various spellings show how much change 

 the name has undergone : 



En (Chaucer, four times), Ew (thrice). 

 Eugh (Spenser), Ewgh, Ugh, and U, Ewe 

 (Ascham), Imi? Yugh, Yeugh, Yewe, Yowe 

 (Palsgrave), You (Brand, p. 71). 



The synonyms are as follow : 

 Greek, MiXos. 



Latin, Taxus, Virgil, Pliny, etc. 

 German, \ Eibe, Eibenbaum, Ibenbaum, Ifen- 

 Swedish, J batim. 



1 Notes and Queries, ist Ser. viii. 



2 luu is 'given as the spelling in the Epinal MS.' i. 44, and as this is the 

 earliest MS. extant in English, and goes back to the seventh century, it may 

 confidently be said to be the oldest spelling of the word extant in any 

 Teutonic language. Notes ajid Queries, 1887, v l- i y - P- 53 2 - 



