Forms: 1 bóece, béce, 3–6 beche, 3 bech, 6 beetch, 6–7 beeche, 6–9 beech. [OE. bóece, béce, cogn. with MLG. bōke, böke, mod.LG. baike, weak fem. (:—OTeut. *bōkjōn-), a derivative form from OTeut. *bōkā-, str. fem., whence also ON. bók, OE. bóc, OHG. buohha, MHG. buoche, G. buche, MDu. boeke (Du. beuk, Flem. boek), ‘beech.’ OTeut. *bokā- was cogn. w. L. fāgus ‘beech,’ and Gr. φᾱγός, φηγός ‘esculent oak’; meaning originally ‘tree with eatable fruit’, from root found in Gr. φαγεῖν to eat. The more primitive Eng. bóc is not found after the 12th c. exc. in BUCK-MAST, BUCKWHEAT, and their abbreviation BUCK.]
1. a. A well-known forest tree indigenous to Europe and Western Asia, having fine thin smooth bark, and glossy oval leaves; its boughs and foliage form a dense mass, and it bears triquetrous nuts (called mast) placed in pairs in a rough or prickly involucre. It has several ornamental varieties distinguished by the color or shape of the leaves, as the Purple, Copper, and Fern-leaved Beech.
b. The genus Fagus, N.O. Corylaceæ, including the Common Beech (F. sylvatica) and other species.
a. 800. Epinal Gl., Fagus, boecae, Corpus Gl., boece (Sweet, O. E. T., 61, 62).
[a. 1000. Wr.-Wülcker, Voc., 137. Fagus, boc.] Ibid., 402. Fagus, bece. [a. 1200 Ibid., 545. Fagus, boctreow.]
a. 1300. W. de Biblesw., in Wright, Voc., 171. Quyr enclowé à foust de fou (of bech).
c. 1300. K. Alis., 5242. Beches, birches of the fairest.
1340. Ayenb., 23. Þe greate beches ine wodes.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 27. Beche tre, fagus.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb. (1586), 101 b. The next among the Mast trees is the Beech.
1600. Fairfax, Tasso, VII. xix. (R.). Engrau’d in barke of beeche and baies.
1704. Pope, Summer, 13. Ye shady beeches, and ye cooling streams.
1727. Thomson, Summer, 1362. The spreading beech, that o’er the stream Incumbent hung.
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., xiii. (1852), 281. I was also pleased to see, at an elevation of little less than 1000 feet, our old friend the southern beech.
c. The wood of this tree. Often attrib., as in beech-coal (i.e., charcoal), beech bedstead, etc.
1607. Lingua, IV. i. in Hazl., Dodsl., IX. 411. How shall I devise to blow the fire of beech coals?
1730. Southall, Buggs, 34. Also Beach-Bedsteds, for all such afford there much Harbour and Food.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 259. Beech, a wood which, from its hardness, closeness, and strength … holds a prominent place.
2. Applied with or without distinguishing epithet to various other trees more or less resembling the beech of Europe; in Australia, Tectona australis (a kind of Teak); in New South Wales, Monotoca elliptica (an Epicrad); in Jamaica, Exostemma caribæum (a Cinchonad). Blue Beech (U.S.), an American species of Hornbeam (Carpinus Americana); † Dutch Beech, old name in England of the Abele (Populus alba); Horn, Horse, or Hurst Beech, dial. names of the HORNBEAM; Sea-side Beech, the ‘Beech’ of Jamaica (see above); Water Beech, the same as Blue Beech; White Beech, dial. name of the HORNBEAM.
3. Comb., chiefly attrib., as beech-apple, -gall, -leaf, -nut, -root, -timber, -tree, -wood; beech-green adj.
c. 1450. in Wright, Voc., 228. Hec fagus, a bech-tre.
1551. Turner, Herbal (1568), 12. The sede is thre square like bucke wheat or beach aples.
1586. W. Webbe, Eng. Poetrie (Arb.), 71. Tyterus happily thou liest tumbling vnder a beetchtree.
1712. Lond. Gaz., No. 4964/1. The Assize of Billet, made … of Beech-wood.
1814. Southey, Roderick, vii. And from his head the ashes fell, like snow Shaken from some dry beech-leaves.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., II. ii. The little Kuhbach gushing kindly by, among beech-rows.
1851. Gard. Chron., 740. A disease which is making great ravages amongst our Beech trees. Ibid., 550. The beech-timber of the Chiltern Hills is harder and heavier.
c. 1865. Letheby, in Circ. Sc., I. 106/1. Oils are also extracted from the beech-nut…, weld seed [etc.].
4. Special comb.: beech-drops, a North American plant, Epiphēgus, N.O. Orobanchaceæ, parasitic upon the roots of the beech; beech-fern, common name of Polypodium Phegopteris; beech-finch, local name of the Chaffinch; beech marten, see MARTEN; beech-mast, the fruit of the beech; beech-oil, oil extracted from beech-mast; beech-owl, local name of the Tawny Owl; beech-weevil (see quot.); beech-wheat = BUCKWHEAT.
1876. Chambers, Cycl., Cancer Root, or *Beech-drops … a parasitic plant.
1841. Fennell, Nat. Hist. Quadr., 106. The Beech Marten is the Martes foina of modern zoologists…. Besides *Beech Marten, it is called Stone Marten.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb. (1586), 31. The graine … three-corned, not unlike the *Beechemast both in colour and forme.
1876. Digby, Real Prop., i. § 1. 17. Feeding swine on the acorns and beechmast.
1716. Lond. Gaz., No. 5468/4. Fine *Beech Oil cold drawn.
1882. Garden, 25 March, 198/2. The *Beech weevil … feeds on the leaves of Beech trees.
