mistlen.

Etymology: Cognate with West Frisian mistel mistletoe, early modern Dutch mistel mistletoe, birdlime (1599 in Kiliaan, who considers it a loanword < Saxon; Dutch mistel mistletoe), Old Saxon mistil mistletoe, birdlime (Middle Low German mistel mistletoe), Old High German mistil (Middle High German mistel , German Mistel mistletoe), Old Icelandic mistil- (only in mistilteinn mistletoe n.), Swedish mistel mistletoe, Danish mistel mistletoe (the Swedish and Danish forms are probably borrowings < Low German). Further etymology uncertain: perhaps < the Germanic base of mix n.¹, from the fact that the plant is propagated in the excrement of birds (compare quot. 1562 for mistle berry n. at Compounds); or perhaps cognate with the Germanic base of mash n.¹, with reference to the stickiness of the berries; in both cases the second element is the Germanic base of the diminutive suffix -el suffix¹.The plant denoted at sense 2 (and referred to as eorð mistel ) has not been identified. The traditional identification with either sweet basil, Ocimum basilicum, or wild basil, Clinopodium vulgare (both plants which bear no similarity to mistletoe), cannot be sustained, and rests entirely on an Old and Middle English glossarial tradition linking mistle with the Latin plant name ocimum (and variants), compare:eOE Cleopatra Gloss. in W. G. Stryker Lat.-Old Eng. Gloss. in MS Cotton Cleopatra A.III (Ph.D. diss., Stanford Univ.) (1951) 349 Ocimum, mistel.OE tr. Pseudo-Apuleius Herbarium (Vitell.) (1984) cxix. 160 Wið heafodece genim þas wyrte þe man ocimum & oðrum naman mistel nemneþ.c1225 Worcester Glosses to Old Eng. Herbarium in Anglia (1928) 52 21 [Mystel, ocimum] Mistel.a1500 Agnus Castus (Bodl. 536) f. 30^v Osmun, i. mystyl, þe leues byn euenlonge. However, it is likely that in all these examples the English word is really intended in the sense ‘mistletoe’ (compare the description of the leaves in quot. a1500; compare also quot. ?a1450 at mistletoe n. 1aα. ), and that it is the Latin word that has been misunderstood. As well as being glossed by mistle or mistletoe , Latin ocimum (and variants) also occur glossed by several quite different plant names (including bistort and nettle) in Middle English glossaries. Furthermore, in the classical tradition Latin ocimum , ocimus , are related to still other plants: see P. Bierbaumer Der Botanische Wortschatz des Altenglischen (1979) III. 172–3 for an attempt to link the Latin word with the white chameleon or distaff thistle, Chamaeleon gummifer, a plant well known for producing a sticky substance similar to birdlime (compare mistletoe n. 2 and also Old High German mistila glossing Latin chamaeleon ). For the folk traditions associated with mistletoe see discussion s.v. mistletoe n.