Forms: 1 alor, -aer, -er, 1–2 alr, 3 olr, 4–8 aller, 7–8 allar; 4–5 aldir, aldyr, 4– alder. By-forms: 5 ellyr, 7– eller, owler, ouller. [With OE. alor, aler, cf. ON. ölr, elrir, OHG. elira, erila, mod. G. erle, eller. The d was a phonetic development, as in alder-best (see ALL D 3), and the dialectal celder = cellar, etc. The historical form aller survived till 18th c. in literature, and is still general in the dialects. Owler (= aüler, or olr) used by Cotton, etc., survives in Lancashire, etc.]
1. A tree (Alnus glutinosa) related to the Birch, common in wet places over the northern hemisphere, from Europe to N.W. America and Japan, the wood of which resists decay for an indefinite time under water.
c. 700. Epinal Gloss (Sweet 38), Alnus: alaer Erf. aler.
883. Chart. Ælfred, in Cod. Dipl., V. 124. Norð úpp of ðǽre ie úpp on ðone ibihttan alr; of ðám ibihtan alre on scortan díc.
c. 940. Sax. Leechd., II. 32. Oxan slyppan … & alor rinde.
a. 1300. in Wright, Voc., 91. Alnus, olr.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 2063. The names how the trees highte, As ook, fir, birch, asp, aldir [v.r. alder -yr].
1483. Cath. Angl., An ellyrtre: alnus.
1502. Arnold, Chron. (1811), 164. Graf it in a stoke of elme or aller.
1567. Maplet, Greene Forest, 30. The Alder tree (which by corrupt and accustomed kinde of speaking they commonly call the Elder).
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 756. The blowinges of Alder are long tagglets.
1601. Holland, Pliny (1634), I. 493. Pines, Pitch trees, and Allar, are very good for to make … pipes to conuey water.
1616. Surflet, Country Farme, 504. The Aller or Alder-tree … doth serue … to lay the foundations of buildings vpon, which are laid in the riuers, fens, or other standing waters, because it neuer rotteth in the vvater, but lasteth as it vvere for euer.
1635. Brereton, Trav. (1844), 149. Cleared of the oullers and underwood.
1676. Cotton, Angler, II. (1863), 240. Plant willows or owlers about it.
1727. Pope, etc., Art of Sinking, 109. And to the sighing alders, alders sigh.
1791. Newte, Tour Eng. & Scot., 240. The oak, aller, birch, and ash, shoot up from the old stock.
1794. Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot., xxviii. 434. Alder is of the same genus with the Birch.
1799. J. Robertson, Agric. Perth, 206. Willows, allers, and other brush-wood are grubbed up.
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., I. I. 172. Amid rushes tall Down in the bottom alders grew.
2. Black Alder, Berry-bearing Alder, or, with modern botanists, Alder Buckthorn (Rhamnus Frangula), a European shrub, formerly thought to be allied to the preceding tree.
1579. Langham, Gard. Health (1633), 10. The iuice of blacke Allder … is yellow.
1597. Gerard, Alnus nigra, Blacke Aller.
1794. Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot., xvi. 206. Berry-bearing Alder … grows in woods, is a black looking shrub.
1861. Pratt, Flower. Plants, II. Alder Buckthorn … Plant perennial … its bark affords a good dye.
3. Pop. extended to various other shrubs or trees, as Black Alder (N. Amer.), Prinos verticillatus; White Alder (N. Amer.), Clethra alnifolia; (S. Afr.) Platylophus trifoliatus; Red Alder (S. Afr.), Cunonia capensis.
4. Comb.:
a. instrumental, as alder-fringed, -skirted, etc.
1845. Hirst, Poems, 48. Adown the alder-margined lane The throstle sings.
1858. H. Miller, Sch. & Schm. (1858), 164. The dark hills and alder-skirted river of Strathcarron.
b. attrib., as alder-branch, -brake, pile, -tree, -wood; alder-buckthorn (see 2); alder-carr, a piece of wet ground where alders grow.
1850. Mrs. Browning, Poems, I. 344. Near the alder-brake We sigh.
1859. W. S. Coleman, Woodlands, 62. Alder-wood, if kept constantly under water, is almost imperishable…. It is said that on Alder-piles the beautiful arch of the famous Rialto of Venice is supported.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., Aldyr-kyr (alderkerre, alderkar). Alnetun, locus ubi alni et tales arbores crescunt.
