Forms: 4 ciprese, cypris, sypres, 4–5 cipris, 4–7 cipres, cypres, 5 cipriss, -ys, cyprys, syprees, -ese, cupresse, 5–6 cipresse, 5–7 cypresse, 6 cipreis, cyparesse, syprys, cypers, (6–7 cipers, 7–8 erron. ci-, cyprus), 8 cipress, 4, 7– cypress. [ME. cipres, cypres, etc., a. OF. ciprès (12th c.), cypres (= Pr. cypres, It. cipresso), ad. late L. cypressus (Vulgate, Isidore, etc.), ad. Gr. κυπάρισσος cypress. The earlier L. adaptation of the word was cupressus; the later cypressus and rare cyparissus were refashioned after Gr. The current Eng. cypress is assimilated to the late L. form.]
1. A well-known coniferous tree, Cupressus sempervirens, a native of Persia and the Levant, extensively cultivated in Western Asia and Southern Europe, with hard durable wood and dense dark foliage; often regarded as symbolic of mourning (see c). Hence, the English name of the genus.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 1377 (Cott.). Cedre, ciprese [v.r. cipres, cipris], and pine.
a. 1400. Pistill of Susan, 69. Þe sauyne and sypres, selcouþ to sene.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, III. x. 47. The cipres berand hych thair bewis.
1551. Turner, Herbal, I. (1568), N iij b. The lefe of Cypres neuer falleth, but is euer grene.
1616. Bullokar, Cypresse, a tree … very tall and slender, the tymber whereof is yellowish and of a pleasant smell.
1797. Mrs. Radcliffe, Italian, vi. A garden, shaded with avenues of melancholy cypress.
1869. Oliver, Elem. Bot., 247. The wood of Cypress … is almost imperishable; the gates of Constantinople made of this wood lasted 1,100 years.
b. The wood of this tree.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 8007 (Gött.). Þu sal find þa wandis þare, Of cydyr, pyne, and of cypress.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Sir Thopas, 170. His spere was of fine cipres.
1474. J. Paston, Lett., No. 739, III. 110. My wryghtyng box of syprese.
1504. Bury Wills (1850), 98. My coffyr of syprys.
1621. Lady M. Wroth, Urania, 261. Into a coffer of Ciprus … he shut it vp.
1673. Phil. Trans., VIII. 6015. Another sort of wood, called Cypress … better than any Pine for Masts.
c. The branches or sprigs of the tree, used at funerals, or as a symbol of mourning. Also fig.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. i. 60. The great earthes wombe they open to the sky, And with sad Cypresse seemely it embrave. Ibid. (1591), Daphn., lxxvi. Vouchsafe to deck the same [a hearse] with Cyparesse.
1695. Prior, Ode after Queen’s Death, v. Let the King dismiss his Woes … And take the Cypress from his Brows.
1761. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, III. lxxv. ’Tis one thing for a soldier to gather laurels,—and ’tis another to scatter cypress.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., LXXXIV. iv. But that remorseless iron hour Made cypress of her orange flower.
2. a. Applied to various trees or shrubs allied to the true cypress, as African C., the genus Widdringtonia (Miller, Plant-n.); Bald, Black, or Deciduous C., Taxodium distichum; Embossed C., the Chinese genus Glyptostrobus; Japanese C., the genus Retinospora; Swamp C., the genus Chamæcyparis (Miller).
1794. Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot., xxviii. 447. Deciduous Cypress has the leaves in two ranks, and spreading; it is a native of America.
1866. Treas. Bot., 967. Retinospora … R. obtusa, the Japanese Cypress … very fine forest tree, eighty or more feet high.
b. Applied to various plants taken to resemble the cypress-tree, as Broom C., Kochia scoparia; Dwarf C., Heath C., names proposed by Turner for Lycopodium alpinum; Field C., Ajuga Chamæpitys; Garden C., (a) in Gerarde, Artemisia maritima; (b) in Lyte, Santolina Chamæcyparissus; Standing C., Gilia coronopifolia; Summer C., Kochia scoparia.
[c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., I. 116. Genim þa ylcan wyrte & cypressum, & dracentsan & huniʓ.]
1548. Turner, Names of Herbes, C i b. Chamaecyparissus … may be called in englishe heath Cypres, because it groweth amonge heath, or dwarfe Cypres.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, I. xviii. 28. Called … in English … Ground Pyne, Herbe Iue, Forget me not, and field Cypres. Ibid., xix. 29. Some call it in English Lauender Cotton, and som Garden Cypres.
1878–86. Britten & Holland, Plant-n., Cypress … 2. Tamarix gallica.—Cornw.
3. attrib. a. Of cypress or cypress-wood. b. Resembling the foliage or shade of a cypress; cypress-like; dark, gloomy, funereal.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., II. i. 353. In Iuory cofers I haue stuft my crownes: In Cypres chests my arras counterpoints.
1597. Lanc. Wills, II. 228. A Cypresse chest standing in the like parlour.
1659. T. Pecke, Parnassi Puerp., 67. Great was Macedo; but the Stagyrite, As much out shin’d; as bright Day, Cypress Night.
1870. Athenæum, 19 Nov., 665. Plenty of cypress sentimentality in Kensal Green.
4. Comb., as cypress-arbo(u)r, -bough, -bud, -cone, -grove, -leaf, -shade, -spire, -swamp, -timber, -tree, -wood, -wreath; cypress-crowned, cypress-like adjs.; cypress-apple, the fruit or cone of the cypress; cypress-knee, a large woody tumor occurring on the roots of Taxodium (Treas. Bot.); cypress-moss, the Alpine or Savin Club-moss (Lycopodium alpinum); also the moss Hypnum cupressiforme; † cypress-nut, the roundish fruit or cone of the cypress; cypress-spurge, Euphorbium Cyparissias (called by Lyte cypress tithymal); cypress-vine, a name of several American species of Ipomæa, convolvulaceous climbing plants.
1712. J. James, trans. Le Blond’s Gardening, 148. Its Fruit, call’d the *Cypress-Apple.
1883. A. Dobson, Old-World Idylls, Dead Letter, I. vi. And still the *cypress-arbour showed The same umbrageous hollow.
1720. Gay, Poems (1745), II. 152. Black *Cypress boughs their drooping heads adorn.
1829. Praed, Poems (1865), I. 359. Pale, *cypress-crowned.
1812. Byron, Ch. Har., II. xxxviii. The pale crescent sparkles … Through many a *cypress grove.
1889. Science, XIII. 176/2. Processes … sufficiently developed to be classed in importance with the *cypress knees.
1640. Parkinson, Theat. Bot., *Cypress-moss, Lycopodium alpinum.
1769. J. Wallis, Nat. Hist. Northumbld., I. viii. 282. Creeping Cypress-Moss, or Heath-Moss, is frequent on Cheviot.
1707. Curios. in Husb. & Gard., 154. The Wood-Spurge, the *Cipress-Spurge, and the Mirtle-Spurge.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, III. xxix. 359. The fifth kinde called *Cypres Tithymal.
1535. Coverdale, Ecclus. xxiv. 13. As a *Cypers tre vpon the mount Hermon.
1818. Shelley, Rev. Islam, V. liv. 5. The banquet … Was spread beneath many a dark cypress tree.
1861. Miss E. A. Beaufort, Egypt. Sepulchr., II. xxiv. 324. A very fine hall … with a ceiling of *cypress wood.
