sycamore

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun variably colored and sometimes variegated hard tough elastic wood of a sycamore tree
  2. noun any of several trees of the genus Platanus having thin pale bark that scales off in small plates and lobed leaves and ball-shaped heads of fruits
  3. noun Eurasian maple tree with pale grey bark that peels in flakes like that of a sycamore tree; leaves with five ovate lobes yellow in autumn

Etymology

Circa 1350 as Middle English sicamour, from Old French sicamor, from Latin sȳcomorus, from Ancient Greek σῡκόμορος (sūkómoros, literally “fig-mulberry”), from σῦκον (sûkon, “fig”) + μόρον (móron, “mulberry”). Possibly influenced by Hebrew שִׁקְמָה (shikmá, “fig-mulberry”). In the 16th c. applied to the European maple (Acer pseudoplatanus), in the early 19th c. to various plane tree species introduced to North America, perhaps in analogy to their shadiness.

In classic literature

Synonyms

lacewood

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