Etymology
The tree was first recognised officially as a distinct form by the Oxford botanist George Claridge Druce in 1908-11, who found examples at Banbury and Fineshade Abbey and who published descriptions and photographs. Druce named the tree for Dr Robert Plot, a 17th century English naturalist. The synonym 'Lock Elm' is an allusion to the difficulty in working its timber. Bancroft referred to Plot's Elm as the East Anglian Elm, adding that it was often referred to as Wych Elm in the region; however, she was almost certainly alluding to the Smooth-leaved Elm.
Read more about this topic: Ulmus Minor Var. Plotii
Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)
“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
—Giambattista Vico (1688–1744)