Other forms: maples
The maple is the tree whose sap makes syrup and whose leaf is on Canada's flag. A maple tree, maple syrup, the maples turn red.
There are well over a hundred species. The sugar maple is the syrup tree, and it takes about forty litres of sap to make one of syrup. Maples are the main source of the autumn colour that draws visitors to New England and eastern Canada. The wood is hard, pale and prized for floors and instruments — bird's eye maple is a figured form used in furniture. Note sycamore, which is a maple despite the name.
1nounmapleA tree with lobed leaves, known for its sap and autumn colour.
“The maple at the end of the garden is about eighty years old.”
2nounhardThe hard pale wood of that tree.
“The whole floor is maple and shows every scratch.”
maple is a tree, or its wood.
Old English mapul is Germanic and has no clear relatives outside the family. The tree has kept its name almost unchanged for a thousand years, which is usual for trees that grew where the language did.
Proto-Indo-European
*mos- — skin sore
Proto-Germanic
*mapulaz
Proto-West Germanic
*mapul — maple tree
Old English
*mapul
Middle English
mapel
English, today
maple
Built from
From Middle English mapel. The is derived from Middle English mapel (“tree of species Acer campestre, sole native maple of the British Isles); wood of such a tree; artistic representation of a maple leaf; a beam, pole, stake (?)”), from Old English mapul (attested in mapulder (“maple tree”), mapultrēow (“maple tree”), etc.), from Proto-West Germanic mapul (“maple tree”), from Proto-Germanic mapulaz; further etymology uncertain, possibly from masuraz (“type of wood with spots or veins, such as maple or walnut”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European mos- (“skin sore”)) + aplaz (“apple; fruit”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European h₂ébōl (“apple; apple tree”)). The is from an use of the noun.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA