Obs. Forms: α. 1 lind, linde, 3–5 linde, 3–6 lynde, (5 lyynde), 5–6 lynd, 3– lind. β. 6–8 lyne, line. See also LINN2. [OE. lind str. fem. and linde wk. fem. (Du. linde), OHG. linda, linta (MHG. linde, linte, G. linde), ON. (Sw. and Da.) lind:—OTeut. *lendā, perh.:—pre-Teut. *lentá, cogn. w. WAryan *lntā, represented by Gr. ἐλάτη silver fir.]
1. The lime or linden (Tilia Europæa). In ME. poetry often used for a tree of any kind, esp. in phr. under (the) lind.
α. a. 700. Epinal Gloss., 1004. Tilia, lind.
972. in Bond, Facs. Charters Brit. Mus. (1877), III. xxx. Of steapan leahe in ða greatan lindan.
a. 1250. Owl & Night., 1750. Þe wrenne sat in hore lynde.
a. 1310. in Wright, Lyric P., xiv. 45. In May hit murgeth when hit dawes,… ant lef is lyght on lynde.
c. 1314. Guy Warw., 1205 (A.). And to pleyn vnder þe linde, Þe hert to chacen and þe hinde.
c. 1320. Sir Tristr., 513. Þe king … teld him vnder linde Þe best, hou it was boun And brouȝt.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. I. 154. Was neuere leef vpon lynde liȝter ther-after.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Clerk’s T., 1155. Be ay of chere as light as leef on linde.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 454. Lugge þi-selfe undyre lynde, as þe leefe thynkes.
c. 1460. Play Sacram., 389. Iason as Ientylle as euer was the lynde.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot., II. 525. Syne vp and doun, als lycht as leif of lynd.
1546. Phaër, Bk. Childr. (1553), R v a. Ye may still a water, of the floures of lind, it is a tree called in latin tilia.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 538. Elms, and linds are not here so stately as further north.
β. c. 1510. Lytell Geste R. Hode, cccxcviii. in Child, Ballads, III. 75. On euery syde a rose-garlonde They shot vnder the lyne. [Cf. ccclxxiv. vnder the lynde.]
1587. Harrison, England, II. xxii. (1877), I. 342. We haue verie great plentie … of these [trees] … so are we not without the chesnut, the line [etc.].
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 541. As for the Line or Linden tree.
16[?]. R. Hood & Guy of Gisbourne, xxii. in Child, Ballads, III. 92. How these two yeomen together they mett, Vnder the leaues of lyne.
¶ 2. ? Used erroneously for ‘wood.’
a. 1400. Stockh. Med. MS., ii. 572, in Anglia, XVIII. 321. In an harys skyn do it bynde, And lete it so lyn in feld or lynde.
3. attrib., as lind-grove, -tree; lind-coal, charcoal made of the wood of the lime.
c. 1450. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 569/34. Calea, a lyndtre.
14[?]. MS. Soc. Antiq., 101 lf. 76 (Halliw. s.v. lyndecole) Half an unce of lyndecole.
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron., I. 53/2. Euerie euening he would write twelue tables, such as they vsed to make on the lind tree.
1610. Shaks., Temp., V. i. 12. All prisoners Sir In the Line-grove which weather-fends your Cell.
1621. G. Sandys, Ovid’s Met., VIII. (1632), 279. On Phrygian hills there growes An Oke by a Line-tree.
