tree of lifen.
/ˌtriː əv ˈlʌɪf/, U.S. /ˌtri əv ˈlaɪf/ 1.
a. A tree conferring or symbolic of life or immortality; esp. (Judaism and Christian Church) the tree in the Garden of Eden bearing fruit which gave eternal life to the eater (see Genesis 2:9, 3:22–4). Also figurative. Cf. life tree n. at life n. Compounds 3. Also with capital initials.Quot. OE shows equivalent use of Old English līfes trēow, literally ‘life's tree’, denoting the tree in the Garden of Eden.
ΘΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > heaven > [noun] > tree of life
OE Ælfric Old Eng. Hexateuch: Gen. (Claud.) ii. 9 Ælces cynnes treow.., eac swylce lifes treow [L. lignum etiam vitae] on middan neorxnawange and treow ingehydes godes & yfeles.]
a1325 (?c1300) Northern Passion (Cambr. Gg.1.1) l. 1201 (MED) Þe braunchez..werin nomin withoute strif And koruen of þe tre of lif, On woche tre þat appil grewe þat doth vs alle to chaunge hewe.
a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Bodl. 959) (1959) Gen. ii. 9 Þe tree of lyf [L. lignum..vitae], in þe mydyll of paradise.
a1500 Legend of Cross in Medium Ævum (1965) 34 213 (MED) Cherubin..kepith the..entre of the Tree of Lif with a flawmyng and a turnyng swerd.
1599 J. Davies Nosce Teipsum 87 But truth, which is eternall, feeds the mind; The tree of life which will not let her dye.
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost iv. 219 The Tree of Life..blooming Ambrosial Fruit Of vegetable Gold.
1747 B. Kennicott Two Diss. i. 16 St. Austin..thinks it was call'd the Tree of Life, not effectively, but significatively; as a Sign of true Immortality, which he should receive of God.
1857 National Mag. Jan. 44/2 Had not man tasted the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge, it is probable that his existence had been perpetuated in ever-blooming youth by means of the tree of life.
1912 J. H. Breasted Devel. Relig. & Thought Anc. Egypt iv. 133 One of the most, if not the most, important of the numerous sources from which the departed Pharaoh hoped to draw his sustenance in the realm of Re was the tree of life in the mysterious isle in the midst of the Field of Offerings.
1958 W. Willetts Chinese Art I. iv. 290 The notion of a Tree of Life, growing in a paradise inaccessible to ordinary mortals, and bearing fruit capable of rejuvenating, reanimating, or prolonging life when eaten, is part of the stock of world myth.
2021 A. Villeneuve Divine Marriage from Eden to End of Days vi. 153 She [sc. Lady Wisdom] is present at creation or identified with the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden.
b. A stylized representation of a tree of life (sense 1a) used as a decorative or ornamental motif, esp. in parts of the Middle East, Far East, and South Asia.In quot. 1814 probably: a representation of the Biblical tree of life.
ΘΠ
society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > ornamental art and craft > pattern or design > [noun] > others
popinjay1322
serpent1388
moss-work1600
flame1602
frostwork1631
damask branch1634
mascaron1664
lacework1675
swash1680
branch-work1702
escallop-shella1706
festoon work1712
ovum1728
bricking1760
rising sun1787
ram's horn1842
linen-pattern1845
linen-scroll1854
wheel-rood1862
primal1875
patch ornament1878
tree1879
wheel-cross1882
skeuomorph1889
linenfold1891
taotie1915
boteh1917
pelta1935
starburst1953
quilling1972
towel-pattern-
1814 Life J. Southcott, Prophetess 17 The Lamb is worked in silver—the Lion in gold. These are surmounted by a Tree of Life worked in gold also.
1878 G. C. M. Birdwood Handbk. Brit. Indian Section (Paris Universal Exhib.) (ed. 2) 128 The Tree of Life represented as modern Yarkand rugs, is always a Pomegranite tree.
1931 A. U. Dilley Oriental Rugs & Carpets Pl. 57 (caption) Beluchistan Prayer Rug with Rectangular Niche and Tree of Life.
1960 B. L. Snook Eng. Hist. Embroidery 81 Hangings worked in polychrome,..with flowing stems or a Persian ‘Tree of Life’ rising from a ground of grass-grown mole hills.
2003 Piecework Jan. 8/1 (caption) A woman in Hazaribagh, India, displaying a ledra with a central tree of life surrounded by elephants.
c. In the Jewish Kabbalah: a diagram in the form of a tree bearing spheres which represent the sephiroth.
Π
1865 C. D. Ginsberg in Proc. Literary & Philos. Soc. Liverpool 1863–4 (1864) 18 App. 197 In the arrangement of this trinity of triads [in the Sephiroth], so as to produce what is called the Kabbalistic Tree, denominated the Tree of Life.., the first triad is placed above, the second and third are placed below.
1911 E. Underhill Mysticism i. v. 117 Such a series of worlds is symbolized by the Ten Heavens of Dante, the hierarchies of Dionysius, the Tree of Life or Sephiroth of the Kabalah.
1970 E. Gray Compl. Guide to Tarot iv. 45 The meanings of the Minor Arcana show an unmistakable correspondence to those of the ten Sephiroth of the Tree of Life.
2008 Spirit of Change Summer 52 Kabbalah is the mystical teaching of Judaism and its Tree of Life..describes the various faces or aspects of God.
2.
a. Any of the evergreen coniferous shrubs or trees which constitute the genus Thuja, esp. the northern white cedar, T. occidentalis. Also with distinguishing word. Cf. arbor vitae n. 1.
ΘΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > trees and shrubs > conifers > cedar and allies > [noun]
cedarc1000
cedar-treec1000
fir-cedar1601
white cedar1654
arbor vitae1664
Thuya1707
thuja1764
American arbor vitae1785
Honduras cedar1799
Cedrela1832
kawaka1832
deodar1842
stinking cedar1866
stinking yew1866
Alaska cedar1874
1629 J. Parkinson Paradisi in Sole 436 The tree of life riseth vp in some places where it hath stood long, to be a tree of a reasonable great bignesse and height, couered with a redder barke then any other tree in our Country.
1681 S. Pordage tr. T. Willis Ess. Pathol. Brain v. 41 There may be prepared a Conserve of the leaves of the Tree of Life, with an equall part of Sugar.
1712 J. Petiver in Philos. Trans. 1710–12 (Royal Soc.) 27 423 American Tree of Life... This is a singular Evergreen, very frequent in divers Gardens.
1890 R. F. Crawford tr. F. Berge Compl. Nat. Hist. 201 We may also mention..the Thuja or Tree of Life (Thuja).
1968 H. J. Larkin Bonsai Culture for Beginners i. 9 The acme of perfection in bonsai would probably be attained with a Chinese tree of life (Thuja arborvitae) because it is hardy, easy to grow from seed or cuttings and has a natural globose head set on a strong, thick trunk.
2004 Nat. New Eng. Winter 71/1 The northern white cedar, along with related shrubs, is often referred to as ‘aborvitae’ [sic] or tree of life, apparently because of its history of practical and medicinal value to humans.
b. The hard, durable wood of any of several trees of the genus Guaiacum (family Zygophyllaceae), or the resin obtained from this; (also) any of these trees; = lignum vitae n.
ΘΠ
the world > health and disease > healing > medicines or physic > medicines of specific form > gums and viscid products > [noun] > gum resins
guttaa1398
mastica1398
olibanuma1398
opopanaxa1400
serapinec1400
olibanc1440
tragacanth1558
gum tragacanth1562
tacamahac1577
seraphium1582
bdellium1585
sagapenum1597
liquidambar1598
lignum vitae1611
gamboge1615
sagapen1712
stacte1715
angico1821
society > occupation and work > materials > raw material > wood > wood of specific trees > [noun] > other woods of West Indies and Central America
guaiacum1533
guaiac1558
lignum vitae1594
sweetwood1607
green ebony1665
princewoodc1665
alligator wood1696
pimento wood1712
greenheart1719
mahoea1726
galimeta-wood1756
determa1769
bullet-wood1843
cocobolo1849
lancewood1858
silver-balli1858
yari-yari1858
Honduras rosewood1860
sabicu1866
amarant1909
the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular medicinal plants or parts > medicinal trees or shrubs > [noun] > non-British medicinal trees or shrubs > guaiacum or lignum vitae
pock tree?1533
guaiacum1553
lignum sanctum1553
pockwood tree1590
lignum vitae1597
wood of life1597
holy wood1712
lignum1899
1668 S. Rolle Londons Resurrection xlviii. 355 We have much of the Indian disease amongst us..and are forced to spend a great deal of their commodity, I mean their Lignum vitae, that is, their guaiacum, using that tree of Life (as they call it) as an antidote against the poison of that forbidden fruit, which is too commonly tasted of.
1742 W. Ellis Timber-tree Improved (ed. 3) II. x. 85 (heading) Of the Lignum Vitæ, or Tree of Life... There is, at this Time, a goodly ever-green Tree of this Sort growing on Little Gaddesden-hill, in Hertfordshire.
1921 Country Life 24 Dec. 844/1 The large turned bowls..were made almost exclusively of lignum vitæ—‘the tree of life’. This, the wood of the guaiacum tree of the West Indies, was so named on account of its high repute as a medicinal agent in early times.
2004 C. Scott Endangered & Threatened Animals Florida iv. 64/1 Extracts from the beneficial, endangered lignum-vitae (Guaiacum sanctum, or the tree of life) have been used successfully to treat rheumatism and tuberculosis.
3. Anatomy. The branching appearance of the white matter of the cerebellum when viewed in the anteroposterior plane; this white matter itself; = arbor vitae n. 2. Now rare.
ΘΠ
the world > life > the body > nervous system > cerebrospinal axis > brain > parts of brain > [noun] > cerebellum > parts of
lobe1672
arbor vitae1800
nodule1839
amygdala1845
nodulus1848
uvula1848
roof nucleus1872
prepeduncle1886
declive1889
postpeduncle1889
archicerebellum1937
1753 D. Ingram tr. C. Verdier Abstr. Anat. Human Body ii. ii. xiv. 174 The Cerebellum being opened longitudinally, we observe that its whitish substance represents on each side a kind of tree, by some called the Tree of Life [Fr. arbre de vie].
1840 A. P. Biegler Anat. & Physiol. Brain & Nerv. Syst. 9 The strata of the grey marrow form now a coat for the white, and then again the latter appears to be crossed by the former, in the cerebellum the changing strata of the two appear in the form of a tree with regularly extending branches. This is called the tree of life.
1996 R. B. Chiasson & W. J. Radke Lab. Man. Cat x. 145/1 The pattern of fiber tracts of the vermis is called the ‘tree of life’ or Arbor Vitae.
4. The diversifying or evolving totality of living organisms, likened to a branching tree; (hence) a branching diagram representing the evolutionary relationships between organisms; a phylogenetic tree. Cf. tree n. Additions.
Π
1836 R. Dunglison tr. J. J. Virey in Amer. Jrnl. Med. Sci. 18 169 Do organized beings, in their individual and transitory existence, emanate as temporary productions from the great tree of life [Fr. grand arbre de vie]?
1859 C. Darwin Origin of Species iv. 130 As buds give rise by growth to fresh buds, and these, if vigorous, branch out and overtop on all sides many a feebler branch, so by generation I believe it has been with the great Tree of Life.
1930 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) B. 218 263 Our present conception of classification, represented as the branches of the great ‘Tree of Life’, is based on this principle.
1980 Dædalus Spring 50 Lamarck a century earlier forced the ramifying tree of life into a primary component of rising complexity.
2009 J. A. Coyne Why Evol. is True vii. 195 Speciation is a splitting event, in which each ancestral branch splits into two twigs, which themselves split later, and so on as the tree of life ramifies.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2022).
> as lemmas
tree of life
tree of life n. (a) a tree symbolic of life or immortality, esp. that in the narrative of the garden of Eden (Genesis ii. 9, etc.); also figurative; (b) a shrub of the genus Thuya; = arbor vitae n. 1; (c) Anatomy = arbor vitae n. 2; (d) a schematized representation of a tree or shrub used as an artistic motif, esp. in eastern work; frequently attributive.
ΚΠ
1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) Gen. ii. 9 The tree of lijf in the mydle of paradys.
1599 J. Davies Nosce Teipsum 87 But truth, which is eternall, feeds the mind; The tree of life which will not let her dye.
1712 J. Petiver in Philos. Trans. 1710–12 (Royal Soc.) 27 423 American Tree of Life.
1760 J. Lee Introd. Bot. App. 317 Tree of Life, Thuya.
1880 G. C. M. Birdwood Industr. Arts India 336 The tree of life represented on modern Yarkand rugs is always a pomegranate tree.
1913 R. C. Maclagan Our Ancestors viii. 121 There was another locality for the Tree of Life.
1931 A. U. Dilley Oriental Rugs & Carpets Pl. 57 (caption) Beluchistan Prayer Rug with Rectangular Niche and Tree of Life.
1960 B. L. Snook Eng. Hist. Embroidery 81 Hangings worked in polychrome,..with flowing stems or a Persian ‘Tree of Life’ rising from a ground of grass-grown mole hills.
1972 Islander (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) 28 May 5/2 A most recently finished piece [of weaving] is done in the universal tree-of-life symbol.
1977 Times 25 June 2/3 A Kashan silk Tree of Life rug..made £3,000.
tree of life
tree of life n. the evolving and diversifying totality of living organisms, likened to a branching tree; (hence) a branching diagram representing the evolutionary relationships between organisms; a phylogenetic tree.
ΚΠ
1859 C. Darwin Origin of Species iv. 130 As buds give rise by growth to fresh buds, and these, if vigorous, branch out and overtop on all sides many a feebler branch, so by generation I believe it has been with the great Tree of Life.
1888 J. Le Conte Evol. i. i. 14 A growing tree branches and again branches in all directions... Even so the tree of life, by the law of differentiation, branches and rebranches continually.
1930 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) B. 218 263 Our present conception of classification, represented as the branches of the great ‘Tree of Life’, is based on this principle.
1980 Dædalus Spring 50 Lamarck a century earlier forced the ramifying tree of life into a primary component of rising complexity.
2009 J. A. Coyne Why Evol. is True vii. 195 Speciation is a splitting event, in which each ancestral branch splits into two twigs, which themselves split later, and so on as the tree of life ramifies.
<
n.a1325as lemmas