Trees of New York State 403 



DERIVATION OF THE NAMES OF TREES 



By C. C, Forsyth * 

 LINGUISTIC SOURCES OF TREE NAMES 



As a correlative to that section of the glossary devoted to the 

 derivation of the names of trees, a brief re\aew of the historical 

 sequence of those languages in which these terms had their origin 

 may not be out of place. Languages, like the trees themselves, 

 have undergone a progressive evolution from the time when man 

 first showed his superiority over the lower animals by designating 

 the objects around him by specific sounds. At first these were 

 few and cumbersome, but as new ideas were born he created new 

 titles for them. In the end, he had a working vocabulary by 

 which he could pass on to his off-spring the fund of knowledge 

 which he had gained. Primitive man, forced as he was to secure 

 a precarious living in a hostile forest, soon recognized that trees 

 were not all similar and even while his store of facts was meagre 

 he had singled out the more conspicuous representatives and had 

 given them names. These articulate ideas in ever-changing form 

 were transmitted from generation to generation, from tribe to 

 tribe, and from age to age. 



Often the mutation in nomenclature has been so great that all 

 evidence of relationship to an earlier tongue has been lost, while 

 in other cases the form has remained quite stable for a period of 

 time antecedent to historical records. These words, among which 

 there are many terms for plants, reveal much concerning primitive 

 culture, migration of peoples, and contact with alien races. 



As might readily be expected, much of our arborescent termi- 

 nology is of Aryan derivation, and many of the words go back 

 even to the parent Indo-European which is believed to have had 

 its birth among the nomadic peoples inhabiting the level forest 

 stretches of the Eussian Steppes. From this point, pastoral 

 hordes, encumbered with their flocks, extended in all directions. 

 One group went south into Greece where they in time gave up the 

 tribal state and built cities. In spite of their contact with the 

 more advanced peoples to the southeast, they progressed along 

 their own lines and Avere among the first of the Arj'ans to evolve 

 a high civilization. They developed a written language which 



• Assistant Professor of Wood Technology, New York State College of Forestry, 

 Syracuse, N. Y. 



