Forms: 1–2 æsc, (3 asse, 4 aychs,) 4–5 assch(e, asch(e, 4–6 assh(e, 4–7 ashe, (5 aish, esche, 6 ach,) 6– ash. [Common Teut.: OE. æsc is cogn. with ON. askr, OHG. ask, MHG. asch, mod.G. esche, OTeut. *ask-oz.]
1. a. A well-known forest tree, indigenous to Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa, and noted in Teutonic literature from the earliest times; having silver-grey bark, graceful pinnate foliage, a peculiar winged seed or samara called the ‘ash-key,’ and very tough close-grained wood valuable for implements.
b. The tribe of trees Fraxineæ, N.O. Oleaceæ, including the Common Ash (Fraxinus excelsior) with several American species, and the Manna or Flowering Ashes (Ornus Europæa and rotundifolia).
c. 700. Epinal Gloss., 416. Fraxinus, aesc.
935. Chart. Æthelstan, in Cod. Dipl., V. 221. On ðæne ealdan æsc.
a. 1300. W. De Biblesw., in Wright, Voc., 171. De frene, of asse.
c. 1305. St. Kenelm, 171, in E. E. P. (1862), 52. A gret asch … stent in þulke place.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 5248. Þe Emperour him liȝt a-doun anon, Vnder an Aychs.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 2064. Wilw, elm, plane, assh.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., Esche, fraxinus.
1504. Plumpton Corr., 188. The okes are sold … & the aches.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., I. i. 9. The warlike beech; the ash for nothing ill.
1769. Sir J. Hill, Fam. Herbal (1812), 16. The Manna Ash is a lower tree than the common ash.
1847. Blackwell, Malet’s North. Antiq., 413 (trans. Edda). The ash Yggdrasill … is the greatest and best of all trees. Its branches spread over the whole world, and even reach above heaven.
1866. Johns, in Treas. Bot., 506. Several American species of ash resemble the European ash in general appearance and qualities.
1872. Oliver, Elem. Bot., II. 207. The wood of the Ash is very tough and elastic, and valued by cart- and wheelwrights.
2. The wood or timber of the ash-tree.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks. (1871), III. 500. An ymage … of oke or of asshe.
c. 1450. Merlin, xxii. 390. A grete growe spere of aish.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Builder, 260. Ash is a species of wood very common in Britain. [See also 5.]
† 3. The ashen shaft of a spear; a spear. Obs.
a. 1000. Beowulf, 3548. Æscum and ecʓum.
1607. Shaks., Cor., IV. v. 114. That body, where against My grained Ash an hundred times hath broke.
1700. Dryden, Pal. & Arcite, III. 513. The tourney is allowed but one career Of the tough ash, with the sharp-grinded spear.
4. Ground Ash, a. An ash sapling. b. Applied locally to various umbelliferous herbs with pinnate leaves, esp. the ASHWEED or Bishopweed, and Wild Angelica (Britten and Holl.) Mountain Ash, synonym of the Rowan-tree or Quickbeam (Pyrus Aucuparia); formerly also occas. of the Aspen (Populus tremula), called also Quaking Ash. Wild Ash, identified by the herbalists sometimes with the Mountain Ash, sometimes with the Ornus of the continent.
1552. Huloet, Ashe called a wylde ashe with greate leaues, Ornus.
1562. Turner, Herbal, II. 71 a. Wild ashe trees grow in the rooky or craggi mountaynes.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 748. Pliny and Columella calleth it Ornus, and Fraxinus, syluestris … In English, Quickebeame, feelde Ashe, wild Ashe, and white Ashe.
1794. Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot., xxi. 291. Mountain Ash and the Service … have pinnate or winged leaves like the Ash.
1814. Wordsw., Excurs., VII. 709. The Mountain Ash … lifts her head Decked with autumnal berries.
5. Comb. (chiefly attrib.), as ash-bud, -plank, -spear, -staff, -tree, -wool; and in many OE. compounds, in sense 3, as æsc-here a company armed with spears, æsc-pleʓa ‘spear-play,’ war, æsc-róf ‘spear-famed,’ noble. Also ash-fly, ash-grub, a fly and grub found on the ash-tree and used by anglers; ash-key, the winged two-celled seed or samara of the ash-tree; ash-leaf, an early potato with leaves resembling those of the ash.
a. 1000. Judith, 217 (Bosw.). Æt ðam æscpleʓan. Ibid., 337. Eorlas æscrófe.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. lxii. (1495), 639. Yf a serpent be sette bytwene a fyre and asshe leuys: he woll fle in to the fire.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., Asche tre, Fraxinus.
c. 1589. Plaine Perc. (1860), 3. With a quarter Ashe staffe on my shoulder.
1805. Scott, Last Minstrel, III. vi. The tough ash-spear, so stout and true.
1842. Tennyson, Gardener’s Dau., 28. More black than ashbuds in the front of March.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 130/1. The timbers … commonly in use in our carriage factories are English ash-plank.
1787. T. Best, Angling (ed. 2), 24. Oak-fly, Ash fly, or Woodcock fly, found on the body of an Oak or Ash. Ibid., 19. Bark-worm, or Ash-grub.
1676. Cotton, Angler, II. 353. The Ash-grub … is plump, milkwhite … with a red head.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., Esch key, Clava in fractinus.
1562. Turner, Herbal, II. 6 a. Called in Inglishe ashe keyes because they hang in bunches after the manner of keyes.
1795. Barker, in Phil. Trans., LXXXV. 412. The hedge fruits were in great abundance, excepting ash-keys.
1843. G. Darling, in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, II. 77. The delicate early ash-leaved kidney.
1845. Morn. Chron., 22 Nov., 5/2. The Wimborne kidneys … are not springing like the ash-leafs.
