maple treen.

Etymology: Probably an alteration of Old English mapulder, mapuldor, mapuldur, mapuldre maple tree (cognate with Old Saxon mapulder (Middle Low German mapeldorn ) in the same sense) on the analogy of Old English apulder, apuldor, apuldre apple tree, and its doublet Old English æpeltrē, apoltrē, æppeltrēow apple tree n. Old English mapulder and Old Saxon mapulder are probably further cognate with Old High German mazaltra , mazzaltra , mazzoltra (Middle High German mazalter , mazolter , German Massholder ): see discussion below. Further etymology uncertain: a connection with the base of mazer n.¹ is likely, but difficult to explain phonologically. Compare also the rare Old Icelandic mǫpurr maple tree, an alteration of the more usual mǫsurr (see mazer n.¹) perhaps influenced by the Old English form. The alteration of Old English mapulder must have occurred earlier than the date of the extant records. Alternatively, there remains the possibility that the word is simply < maple n.¹ (although this is only attested later) + tree n.; place-name evidence (see etymological note s.v. maple n.¹) significantly reduces the gap between earliest attestations for maple tree and maple.There appear to have been two synonymous West Germanic words, one represented by Old English mapulder , Old Saxon mapulder , the other by Old High German mazaltra , mazzaltra , mazzoltra (Middle High German mazalter , mazolter , German Maßholder ). P. Bierbaumer Der Botanische Wortschatz des Altenglischen (1975) I. 100–1 suggests that the non-High German forms are based on an even earlier analogical alteration of the first two syllables of the original West Germanic base form with -t- (represented only in High German) to -p- after the West Germanic base of Old English apulder . Only in the High German area did the Germanic tree-name suffix represented by Old English -der , -dre , Old High German -tra (Middle High German -ter , German -der ) (probably ultimately cognate with the Indo-European base of tree n.) remain productive and transparent (compare German Holunder elder, Wacholder juniper); in the rest of the West Germanic area this suffix was restricted to the words for ‘maple tree’ and ‘apple tree’, and its original meaning and function became unclear. This led, in turn, to the two words being linked with each other, and, in Old English, to the substitution of trēow tree n. for the earlier suffix. For the linking of the words for ‘maple tree’ and ‘apple tree’ in West Germanic of the non-High German area because of their formal similarity compare:eOE Bald's Leechbk. (Royal) (1865) i. xxxvi. 86 Genim cwicbeam rinde, & æpsan, & apuldor, mapuldor, ellen, wiþig, [etc.]. For a parallel example of such linking compare quot. OE²; for an example of outright confusion of the two words compare German regional (Low German) Aepeldäörn, Aepeldurn, Apelder, Apeldören maple tree.