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WIKTIONARY VIA KAIKKI / WIKTEXTRACT

Imported dictionary evidence

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35,981 English word records · 45,491 etymology sections in this online subset

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3 source sections across 2 headwords matching “Tree”. These are separate from the reviewed results below.

Open the permanent entry for Tree →Open the permanent entry for tree →
TreeEnglish (en) · Etymology 1Source text

Topographic surname for someone who lived near a conspicuous tree.

Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗
treeEnglish (en) · Etymology 1Source text

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dóru Proto-Germanic *trewą Proto-West Germanic *treu Old English trēow Middle English tre English tree PIE word *dóru From Middle English trau, tre, tree, treo, treou, trew, trewe, troe, trouȝh, trouȝgh, trow, trowe, from Old English trēo, trēow, trēu, trīo, trīow, trȳw (“tree; wood; forest; beam, cudgel, log; cross”), from Proto-West Germanic *treu, from Proto-Germanic *trewą (“tree”), from pre-Germanic *dréwom, thematic e-grade derivative of Proto-Indo-European *dóru (“tree”). Related to tar, true. Cognates Cognate with Dutch teer (“tree”), Danish, Faroese, and Scanian træ (“tree; timber, wood”), Elfdalian trai (“tree; timber, wood”), Icelandic tré (“tree; wood”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk tre (“tree; wood”), Swedish trä (“wood; tree”), träd (“tree”), Gothic 𐍄𐍂𐌹𐌿 (triu, “piece of wood”); also Breton derv (“oak”), Cornish dar (“oak”), Irish dair (“oak”), Manx darragh (“oak; oaken”), Scottish Gaelic darach (“oak”), Welsh dâr (“oak”), Ancient Greek δόρυ (dóru, “tree; wood; spear”) (whence Greek δόρυ (dóry, “pike, spear”)), Albanian dru (“tree; wood”), Latvian darva (“tar”), Lithuanian derva (“tar; resin”), Belarusian дзе́рава (dzjérava, “tree”), дрэ́ва (dréva, “tree; wood”), Czech drvo, dřevo (“wood”), Polish drzewo (“tree; wood”), Russian де́рево (dérevo), дре́во (drévo, “tree; wood”), Serbo-Croatian др̏во, drȇvo, drijȇvo, drȋvo, dȑvo (“tree; wood”), Slovak and Slovene drevo (“tree; wood”), Ukrainian де́рево (dérevo, “tree; wood”), Armenian տարր (tarr, “element; component”), Avestan 𐬛𐬁𐬎𐬭𐬎 (dāᵘru, “wood”), Central Kurdish and Persian دار (dâr, “tree; wood”), Northern Kurdish dar (“tree”), Zazaki dare (“tree”), Hittite 𒋫𒊒 (taru), 𒋫𒀀𒊒 (táru, “tree; wood”), Luwian 𒋫𒀀𒊒 (tāru, “wood”), Tocharian A and Tocharian B or (“wood”), Sanskrit दारु (dāru, “timber, wood”). Replaced alternative Middle English beem, from Old English bēam (see beam) and eclipsed non-native Middle English arbre, borrowed from Old French arbre.

Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗
treeEnglish (en) · Etymology 1Source text

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dóru Proto-Germanic *trewą Proto-West Germanic *treu Old English trēow Middle English tre English tree PIE word *dóru From Middle English trau, tre, tree, treo, treou, trew, trewe, troe, trouȝh, trouȝgh, trow, trowe, from Old English trēo, trēow, trēu, trīo, trīow, trȳw (“tree; wood; forest; beam, cudgel, log; cross”), from Proto-West Germanic *treu, from Proto-Germanic *trewą (“tree”), from pre-Germanic *dréwom, thematic e-grade derivative of Proto-Indo-European *dóru (“tree”). Related to tar, true. Cognates Cognate with Dutch teer (“tree”), Danish, Faroese, and Scanian træ (“tree; timber, wood”), Elfdalian trai (“tree; timber, wood”), Icelandic tré (“tree; wood”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk tre (“tree; wood”), Swedish trä (“wood; tree”), träd (“tree”), Gothic 𐍄𐍂𐌹𐌿 (triu, “piece of wood”); also Breton derv (“oak”), Cornish dar (“oak”), Irish dair (“oak”), Manx darragh (“oak; oaken”), Scottish Gaelic darach (“oak”), Welsh dâr (“oak”), Ancient Greek δόρυ (dóru, “tree; wood; spear”) (whence Greek δόρυ (dóry, “pike, spear”)), Albanian dru (“tree; wood”), Latvian darva (“tar”), Lithuanian derva (“tar; resin”), Belarusian дзе́рава (dzjérava, “tree”), дрэ́ва (dréva, “tree; wood”), Czech drvo, dřevo (“wood”), Polish drzewo (“tree; wood”), Russian де́рево (dérevo), дре́во (drévo, “tree; wood”), Serbo-Croatian др̏во, drȇvo, drijȇvo, drȋvo, dȑvo (“tree; wood”), Slovak and Slovene drevo (“tree; wood”), Ukrainian де́рево (dérevo, “tree; wood”), Armenian տարր (tarr, “element; component”), Avestan 𐬛𐬁𐬎𐬭𐬎 (dāᵘru, “wood”), Central Kurdish and Persian دار (dâr, “tree; wood”), Northern Kurdish dar (“tree”), Zazaki dare (“tree”), Hittite 𒋫𒊒 (taru), 𒋫𒀀𒊒 (táru, “tree; wood”), Luwian 𒋫𒀀𒊒 (tāru, “wood”), Tocharian A and Tocharian B or (“wood”), Sanskrit दारु (dāru, “timber, wood”). Replaced alternative Middle English beem, from Old English bēam (see beam) and eclipsed non-native Middle English arbre, borrowed from Old French arbre.

Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗

From Wiktionary contributors; extracted by Tatu Ylonen / Wiktextract / Kaikki.org. Extraction source · CC-BY-SA-4.0. Selected source text is reformatted for display; language and section identity are retained.

Source dump: 2026-10-01 · Extraction: 2026-10-30. These dates identify a dump snapshot, not an individual page revision.

Snapshot checksums and coverage
SOURCE SHA-256
5ff2c072f8099f2d2ce484bd6957bf179f046d2ad37bc36555edf8bb84cb5291
CORPUS SHA-256
c4c2a77325141846709230e11c2959332acd630d53e52905b72d36211251b081
IMPORT RUN
73216b9a9b78ed3830994bf853103716f5a4dc57099e371e9f8fdc468facca26
SUBSET SELECTION
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INDEPENDENT SOURCE LIBRARY

More sources for this spelling

These are spelling matches, not a claim of identical senses or agreement. Historical accounts retain their own editions and limits; none is automatically promoted into reviewed ancestry.

Browse the independently attributed sources →
38REVIEWED RESULTS
11WORD DOSSIERS
9HISTORICAL NODES
2SOURCES
14CLAIMS
2WITNESSES
01

MODERN ENTRY POINTS

WORD DOSSIERS

11
nounexact headword

tree

A perennial woody plant; inherited through Old English trēow and Germanic *trewam from the firmness-and-wood branch of *deru-.

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noundossier summary

aguacate

The Spanish word for the avocado tree and fruit, borrowed from Nahuatl āhuacatl, whose historical records include both fruit and testicle senses.

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nounhistorical form

avocado

An English reshaping of Spanish aguacate from Nahuatl āhuacatl, a word documented with both avocado and testicle senses.

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verbhistorical form

betroth

To promise in marriage; a Middle English prefixed formation built on the same historical noun that yielded truth and troth.

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nounhistorical form

kayık

The Turkish word for a small boat, continued from Old Turkic kayguk and analyzed within an internal Turkic history rather than the Inuit qayaq family.

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nounhistorical form

mango

English mango, recorded by 1582, came through Portuguese manga, probably from Malayalam māṅṅa. The reviewed route stops there rather than forcing a deeper Dravidian reconstruction.

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nounhistorical form

troth

Pledged fidelity, good faith, or betrothal; a surviving historical twin of truth rather than a later poetic fabrication.

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nounhistorical form

truce

A temporary suspension of hostilities by agreement; inherited through a Middle English plural of a word for agreement or pledge.

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adjectivehistorical form

true

In accord with fact, reality, or a standard; historically an inherited word whose older center is firmness, faithfulness, and steadfastness.

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nounhistorical form

trust

Assured reliance, confidence, or responsibility; probably entering Middle English from Scandinavian material meaning confidence and firmness.

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nounhistorical form

truth

Conformity with fact or reality; inherited through Old English trēowþ, whose recorded semantic field includes fidelity, loyalty, and constancy.

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02

ATTESTED / RECONSTRUCTED / BOUNDARY

HISTORICAL FORMS

9
03

WHERE INTERPRETATION IS TESTED

CLAIMS & DISPUTES

14

SCHOLARLY DISPUTES / 5

resolvedestablishedexact word

Is tree the literal ancestor of true?

No. Tree and true share the reconstructed *deru- family but travel through different Germanic formations and different senses.

resolvedestablishedexact word

Did *deru- mean only tree or wood?

No. The published reconstructed semantic range begins with being firm, solid, or steadfast and extends to wood and tree.

openprobableposition text

Was the relative sense inherited or independently strengthened in Germanic branches?

The sources establish the sense across German and Nordic evidence but do not recover one complete prehistoric semantic tree.

openproposedposition text

Does kayguk continue *kad- “fir tree” or a *kay- “turn, bend” base?

The reviewed article argues for a *kad- / *kad-ï analysis and discusses the older *kay- account. The historical kayguk stage is secure; the deeper derivation remains proposed.

resolvedestablishedposition text

Does true descend from tree?

No. True and tree are parallel descendants in different branches that meet at reconstructed *deru-; the modern tree noun is not a parent of true.

CONTRARIAN TRUTHS / 9

RANK 103GRADE Aexact ranked word

Tree and truth meet at firmness, not fantasy.

Tree follows the wood branch through Germanic *trewam; truth follows the fidelity branch through *treuwaz and *treuwithō. They meet at *deru- “firm, solid, steadfast; wood, tree.”

RANK 2GRADE Aranked reveal

Truth began with firmness and fidelity.

Before truth centered factual correspondence, its family named what was firm, faithful, and steadfast.

RANK 77GRADE Aranked reveal

Same sound, same object, different ancestry.

Turkish kayık reaches Old Turkic kayguk; kayak reaches Inuit qayaq. Their uncanny agreement is chance resemblance, not evidence of contact or a common root.

RANK 100GRADE Aranked reveal

True was steadfast before it was merely factual.

Old English trēowe meant faithful; its Germanic *treuwaz branch reaches reconstructed *deru- “firm, solid, steadfast; wood, tree.” Factual accuracy is real, but not the whole history.

RANK 101GRADE Aranked reveal

To betroth is to bind by one’s truth or troth.

Middle English bitrouthen visibly combines bi-/be- with trouth, the historical fidelity noun before modern truth and troth were cleanly separated.

RANK 102GRADE Aranked reveal

A truce was grammatically plural.

Modern singular truce continues Middle English trewes, the plural of an agreement noun from Old English trēow “fidelity.” A ceasefire is historically a set of pledged terms.

RANK 153GRADE Aranked reveal

Trust is confidence made firm.

The likely Scandinavian noun belongs to a Germanic family of firmness and faith. Its exact Old Norse donor remains probable rather than certain.

RANK 154GRADE Aranked reveal

Truth and troth were once one word family in plain sight.

Middle English trouth and Old English trēowþ covered truth, faith, loyalty, and pledged fidelity before the modern words specialized.

RANK 191GRADE Aranked reveal

Legal is not descended from English law.

The meanings meet; the family trees do not. legal is Latin, while law is Germanic and Scandinavian.

04

BOOKS / DICTIONARIES / ARTICLES / DATABASES

SOURCES

2
05

FIRST USES & HISTORICAL OBJECTS

ATTESTATION WITNESSES

2
06

SEARCH IS DISCOVERY, NOT PROOF

EVERY RESULT OPENS A PERMANENT EVIDENCE RECORD.

Matching text only locates a record. It does not raise confidence, settle a dispute, establish cognacy, or turn a source report into direct inspection. Follow the result into its citations and editorial limits.