Other forms: cypresses
A cypress is a dark narrow evergreen common in Mediterranean gardens. A row of cypress, cypress trees, the cypress avenue.
The tall narrow shape is a cultivated form; wild ones spread much wider. It is the tree of Italian cemeteries and Tuscan roads, and its association with mourning goes back to the Greeks. The wood is aromatic and rot-resistant, which is why it was used for coffins and for temple doors. Note that Cyprus the island and the cypress may share a name.
1nouncypressA dark narrow evergreen tree.
“Tall cypress trees lined the path through the old cemetery on the hill.”
cypress is a tree.
Latin cypressus comes from Greek kyparissos, probably from a pre-Greek Mediterranean language. The island of Cyprus may be named from the same source or the reverse.
Latin
cypressus
Old French
cipres
Middle English
cipres
English, today
cypress
From Middle English cipres, from Old French cipres (French cyprès), from Latin cypressus; compare Hebrew גֹּפֶר, the name of the tree whose wood was used to make the ark (Genesis. vi:14), also κύπρος (relating to aromatic pitch).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA