Also 6–7 -ell, -eill, -eil(e, 7 -ill, -oil(e, cornowlee. [App. first in 16th c. herbalists, in the compounds cornel tree, cornel berry, transl. Ger. cornel-, cornell-baum (16th c. in Grimm), kornel-beere, app.:—OHG. cornulbaum, -beri, churnelbere, quirnilberi. According to Hildebrand, Kluge, etc., OHG. cornul, curnol was ad. med.L. cornolium (or ? cornolius) cornel-tree (in Du Cange). This med.L. seems to be formed on F. cornouille (in 16th c. cornoille, cornoaille) ‘cornel-cherry,’ which Diez refers to a pop.L. *cornuculum (in pl. -a), dim. of L. cornum ‘cornel-cherry,’ the fruit of the cornus or cornel-tree.
The Ger. kornelbaum is also the source of Da. korneltræ, Sw. kornelträd. Mod. Ger. has kornelle for the fruit. From F. cornouille is derived Du. kornoelje, whence Brereton’s cornowlee (quot. 1634). Variously formed derivatives of L. cornus, cornum, and the adj. corneus, appear in CORN-TREE, OE. corntreaw, and It. cornio, corniolo the tree, cornia, corniola the fruit (cf. Picard dial. corgnolle, corniolle), obs. F. cornille the berry (Cotgr.), Sp. cornejo (:—corniculus), F. cornier, cornouillier, cornel-tree.]
1. English name of the botanical genus Cornus, of which the ancient writers and early herbalists distinguished two ‘sorts,’ Cornus mas ‘Male Cornel,’ and C. femina ‘Female Cornel.’ The former was the Cornel-Tree (see 3 a) or Cornelian Cherry-tree, the Tame Cornel of Lyte (C. mascula), a large shrub or low tree bearing edible fruit, a native of Southern Europe, sometimes cultivated in Britain; the latter was the Cornel-bush, Wild or Common Cornel, or Dogwood (C. sanguinea), a common hedge-row shrub in the south of England, of which the berries are not edible. Dwarf Cornel is a modern book-name of C. suecica, and in N. America of C. canadensis. With other qualifying words the name is sometimes given to other species of Cornus, of which more than twenty are known.
1551. [see 3 a].
1589. Fleming, Georg. Virg., II. 31. The peare tree changed for to beare apples grafted thereon, And stonie cornells to wax red with damsens or with plums.
1634. Brereton, Trav. (1844), 45. Cornowlee makes an hedge like privett.
1725. Pope, Odyss., X. 284. The goddess … strows The fruits of cornel, as their feast.
1791. Cowper, Iliad, XVI. 936. Or beech, or ash, or rugged cornel old.
1856. Bryant, Strange Lady, viii. Where cornels arch their cool dark boughs o’er beds of winter-green.
1863. Life in South, I. vi. 84. The abundant blossom of the cornel, or dogwood, enlivens the woods for many weeks at this season.
b. The fruit of the Cornel Tree, the Cornelian Cherry or Long Cherry, a fruit of the size and shape of an olive.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 448. Others turn red, as Mulberries, Cherries, and Cornoiles. Ibid., I. 449. Mulberries, Cherries, and Corneils, haue a sanguine and bloudie liquor.
1666. A. Brome, Horace, II. II. (1671), 244. Avidienus … would eat wild Cornels.
1855. Singleton, Virgil, I. 109. And stony cornels crimson on the plums.
c. A javelin or shaft of cornel-wood. [Only transl. L. cornus, so used.]
1621. G. Sandys, Ovid’s Met., VIII. (1626), 160. His heauy cornell with a head Of brasse, he hurles.
1855. Singleton, Virgil, II. 496. A twang Emits the whirring corneil.
2. attrib. or adj. Of cornel-wood. [After L. corneus.]
1671. H. M., trans. Erasm. Colloq., 260. He had bought oaken ones, when there was need of Firr, or Cornel ones.
1700. Dryden, Fables, Pal. & Arc., 1546. Reclining on her cornel spear she stood.
1725. Pope, Odyss., XIX. 510. His cornel spear Ulysses wav’d.
1809. Heber, Palestine, 328. Form the long line, and shake the cornel lance.
1868. Morris, Earthly Par., I. 107. To see the mighty cornel bow unstrung.
3. Comb. a. Cornel-tree, the Cornelian cherry tree. (Rarely = Dogwood.) Cf. sense 1.
The earliest use of the word.
1551. Turner, Herbal, I. M ij b. I heare say that ther is a Cornel tree at Hampton Courte here in Englande.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, VI. li. 725. There be two sortes of the Cornell tree … the tame and wilde.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Country Farme, 395. As for the Corneile-tree, which the Latines call Cornus … it would be planted or grafted after the manner of the Ceruise-tree.
1783. W. F. Martyn, Geog. Mag., I. 132. The trees most common in Persia are the plane tree … and the cornel-tree.
1879. Butcher & Lang, Odyss., 161. Circe flung them acorns and mast and fruit of the cornel tree.
b. Cornel-berry, -fruit: = 1 b. (Sometimes the fruit of other species of Cornus.)
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, I. viii. 15. Like to a small Oliue or Cornell Berry. Ibid., VI. li. 726. The Cornell fruite [of the garden] … is good against the laske.
1791. Cowper, Odyss., X. 299. With acorns, chesnuts, and the cornel-fruit.
1848. Thoreau, Maine W., i. (1864), 59. The cornel or bunch berries were very abundant.
c. Cornel-wood, the wood of Cornus mascula, celebrated for its hardness and toughness, whence it was anciently in request for javelins, arrows, etc.: cf. 1 c.
1600. Holland, Livy, I. lvi. 39. A golden rod within a staffe of cornell wood.
1860. Rawlinson, Herodotus, VII. xcii. IV. 83. For arms they had bows of cornel wood.
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., I. I. 440. Within the towne of Rome there stood An image cut of cornel wood.
d. Cornel-bush, dogwood (or other shrubby species).
1829. [J. L. Knapp], Jrnl. Naturalist, 372. The cornel bushes (cornus sanguinea) were decorating our hedges in a profusion.
