Also 8 tupelow, 9 tupeloo, tupola. [N. Amer. Ind.] Native name of trees of the North American genus Nyssa (N.O. Alangiaceæ or Nyssaceæ), large trees growing in swamps or on river banks in the southern states; esp. N. villosa or multiflora (also called Black or Sour Gum, and Pepperidge), and the large tupelo or tupelo gum (N. uniflora), which produces a light tough timber. Also attrib., as tupelo-gum, -swamp, -tree; tupelo-tent, a surgical tent made of the spongy wood of the root of the tupelo.
1730. Mortimer, in Phil. Trans., XXXVI. 431. The Tupelo Tree. Ibid., 434. The Water Tupelo.
1756. P. Collinson, in Darlington, Mem. (1849), 202. Billy’s drawing and painting of the Tupelo, is fine.
1765. in W. Stork, Acc. East Florida (1766), 79. The low lands are partly cypress and tupelow swamps.
1816. W. Darby, Descr. Louisiana iv. 62. The tupeloo is known in Louisiana by the popular name of olive.
1864. Lowell, Fireside Trav., 42. Maple, and the rarer tupelo with downward limbs.
1865. Parkman, Champlain, ix. (1875), 305. The garnet hue of the young oaks, the bonfire blaze of the tupelo at the water’s edge.
1885. in Milnor (Dakota) Free Press, 25 April, 5/5. The tupelo-gum and the willow-oak are timbers that are destined to a commercial value never until recently dreamed of.
1900. W. D. Howells, in Scribner’s Mag., Sept., 367/2. He wished to show me a tupelo-tree.
