sb. Forms: 1 elm, 5–7 elme, 9 dial. elem, ellum, 4– elm. Also 4 ulm, 6 ulme. [OE. elm str. masc. = OHG. elm str. masc. (whence the derivatives MHG. elme, ilme, ilmene wk. fem.):—WGer. *elmo-z; the same word with difference of ablaut appears as ON. álmr (Sw. alm, Da. alm, ælm) etymologically = L. ulmus. The mod.Ger. ulme, Du. olm, and the Eng. form ulm(e, are due to the influence of the Lat. word.]
1. The name of well-known trees belonging to the genus Ulmus, esp., in England, the Common or Small-leaved Elm (Ulmus campestris), a tree having rough, doubly serrated leaves, flowers nearly sessile, the fruit oblong, deeply cloven and glabrous; in Scotland, the Witch or Wych Elm (Ulmus montana) or the Cork-barked Elm (Ulmus suberosa); in U.S. the White Elm (Ulmus americana).
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 52. Eft ʓenim elmes rinde, ʓebærn to ahsan.
1382. Wyclif, Isa. xli. 19. I shal sette in desert fyrr tree and vlm and box togidere.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 138. Elm, tre, ulmus.
1541. Act 33 Hen. VIII., c. 9 § 5. Two other bowes … of ashe, elme, wyche, hasyll or other wood mete for the same.
1567. Drant, Horace Epist., I. vii. D vj. Our cittizen is now a Corridon. He trimmes his ulmes.
1664. Evelyn, Sylva, iv. § 6. The Elm delights in a sound, sweet and fertile Land.
1750. Gray, Elegy, iv. Beneath those rugged elms, that yew tree’s shade.
1794. Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot., xvii. 224. Few persons know that the Elm has any flower.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 94. The inner bark of the Elm is slightly bitter and astringent.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., xciv. 58. Rock’d the full foliaged elms.
1858. O. W. Holmes, One-hoss Shay. Logs from the ‘Settler’s ellum.’
1877. E. Peacock, N.-W. Linc. Gloss. (E. D. S.), Elem, the elm.
1881. Isle Wight Gloss. (E. D. S.), Ellum, an elm.
2. With distinguishing epithets, denoting the above-named and other species of the genus Ulmus: Broad-leaved Elm, Ulmus latifolia or montana; Chichester Elm, also called American Elm, Ulmus americana; Witch or Wych Elm, Ulmus montana. Also Yoke Elm, the HORNBEAM (Carpinus Betulus).
1876. Harley, Mat. Med., 423. The Broad-Leaved Elm … 60–80 feet high, with rugged bark.
1882. Garden, in Nov., 419/3. The Chichester Elm … is variously known as the Huntingdon, Scampston, or unfortunately as the American Elm.
3. fig. with reference to the practice of training vines on elms.
1590. Shaks., Com. Err., II. ii. 179. Thou art an Elme my husband, I a Vine.
1643. Myst. Iniq., 2. Subverting the Protestant Religion, together with the Subjects Liberty, (the Elme of that Vine).
4. The wood of these trees.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 261. Elm is another tough and strong species of wood.
5. Comb., chiefly attrib., as elm-dresser, -plank, -shadow, -tree, -wood; elm-embosomed, -encircled adjs.; elm-balm, the fluid contained in elm-galls; elm-gall, the gall produced on the different species of elm by the puncture of Aphis ulmi; elm-pipe, the trunk of an elm hollowed for use as a drain or water-pipe.
1861. Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., V. 42. Galls are also produced on the leaves by the puncture of a cynips, and each gall contains some drops of liquid, which has been called *Elm balm.
1596. in Rogers, Agric. & Prices, III. 578. *Elm dresser 20/.
1839. Clough, Poems, II. 11. Field and wood And *elm-embosomed spire.
1777. T. Warton, Poems, Ode vii. Or grange, or *elm-encircled farm.
1731. S. Hales, Stat. Ess., II. App., Where *elm-pipes lay underground.
1677. Moxon, Mech. Exerc. (1703), 173. An Oaken plank, or *Elm plank.
1835. Mrs. Hemans, Haunted House. Where the deep *elm shadows fall.
1562. Turner, Herbal, II. (1568), 169 b. The leues, the boughes, and the barck of the *elm tre, haue a binding vertue.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, 52/1. The Elme Tree is of some called All-Heart.
1771. Goldsm., Hist. Engl., II. 387. Her body was … thrown into a common chest of elm tree.
1832. Tennyson, Dream Fair Wom., 57. Enormous elmtree-boles did stoop and lean Upon the dusky brushwood underneath Their broad curved branches.
