Forms: α. 1 berc, beorc (? beorch), byrc. β. 1 birciae, byrce, birce, 3–6 birche, 5–6 byrch(e, 4– birch; north. 4–5 byrk(e, 4– birk. [OE. had two forms: (1) berc, beorc str. fem. = ON. bjork (Sw. björk, Da. birk):—OTeut. *berkâ- str. fem.; (2) OE. bierce, byrce, birce, in Epinal Gl. birciae, wk. fem. = OHG. bir(i)cha (MHG., mod.G. birke):—OTeut. *birkjôn- wk. fem., a derivative of *berkâ- (cf. the two forms bôkâ- and bôkjôn- BEECH). An Indo-Germanic tree name:—OAryan *bhergo-, *bhergā-: cf. Skr. bhūrja a species of birch, Lith. beržas, OSlav. bréza. The OE. birce gave ME. birche, mod. birch; the northern form birk reaches to Morecambe Bay and Lincoln: cf. CHURCH, KIRK.]
1. A genus of hardy northern forest trees (Betula), having smooth tough bark and very slender branches. a. esp. The common European species (B. alba) which grows from Mt. Etna to Iceland, and from Greenland to Kamtschatka, and is distinguished among the other forest trees by its slender white stem; its twigs, bound in bundles, have furnished brooms, and the ‘birch’ for flogging. Also called Lady Birch, Silver B., White B.; the Weeping or Drooping Birch (B. pendula) is a variety.
(In OE. Vocabularies berc, birce, translate both L. betula and populus.)
a. 700. Epinal Gl., 132 (also Erf. & Cott.), Bet[ul]a, berc arbor dicitur. Ibid., 792, Populus, birciae [Corpus birce].
a. 1000. Rune-poem, 18. Beorc byð bleda leás.
a. 1000. Ælfric, Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, Voc., 138. Populus, byrc. Betulus, byre.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 332. Nim æps rinde … berc rinde.
c. 1050. Wr.-Wülcker, Voc., 361. Betulus, byrce. Ibid., 469. Populus, byrce.
c. 1300. K. Alis., 5242. Beches, birches of the fairest.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, XVI. 394. Byrkis on athir syde the way.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 2063. As oke, fir, birch, aspe, alder, holm, poplere.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. clix. (1495), 708. Therwyth houses ben swepte and clensyd . and many called this tree Byrche.
1551. Turner, Herbal (1568), 66. Byrche … serueth … for betynge of stubborne boyes.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb. (1586), 102. Birch … is a tree very meete for woodes.
1801. Southey, Thalaba, XI. xxiii. The Birch so beautiful, Light as a lady’s plumes.
1829. Southey, Sir T. More, I. 121. Directly opposite there are some … steps of herbage, and a few birch.
1830. Tennyson, Dirge, i. Shadows of the silver birk Sweep the green that folds thy grave.
1874. Blackie, Self-Cult., 42. The fragrant breath of birches blowing around him.
b. Dwarf Birch (B. nana), a low wiry shrub found on Scottish moorlands and in continental Europe and North America; Paper Birch or White B. of America (B. papyracea), a North American species, so called from the brilliant white color of the bark, of which the Indians build birch-bark canoes; Cherry Birch (B. lenta), also called Sweet Mahogany, or Mountain B., a native of N. America, with fragrant leaves. Numerous other species are known: and the name is popularly applied to other genera, as the West Indian Birch (Bursera gummifera, NO. Amyridaceæ).
1875. Higginson, Yng. Folks’ U. S. Hist., iii. 17. The canoe was made of the bark of the white-birch.
c. The wood of this tree.
a. 1400. Sir Perc., 772. A fyre brynnande Off byrke and of akke.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 262. Birch is also a very common wood.
d. The plural birks is often used in the north in the name of a wood or grove of birches.
a. 1724. D. Mallet, Song, ‘The Birks of Endermay.’
1794. Burns, Birks Aberfeldy. Let us spend the lightsome days In the birks of Aberfeldy.
1855. Whitby Gloss., Birks, a coppice or small wood in which the growth chiefly consists of birches.
2. A bunch of birch-twigs bound together to form an instrument for the flagellation of school-boys and of juvenile offenders; a birch-rod.
[c. 1440. Bone Flor., 1518. He bete hur wyth a yerde of byrke.
1603. Shaks., Meas. for M., I. iii. 24. The threatning twigs of birch.]
1648. Herrick, Upon Pagget, Hesp. (1869), 67. Pagget, a school-boy, got a sword, and then He vow’d destruction both to birch and men.
1730. Swift, Sheridan’s Subm., Wks. 1755, IV. I. 260. I’ve nothing left to vent my spleen But ferula and birch.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., II. iii. Were he [the Schoolmaster] to walk abroad with birch girt on thigh.
1834. Marryat, Jac. Faithf., I. v. 82. Most strenuously and most indefatigably was the birch applied to Barnaby, a second time through me.
3. A canoe made of the bark of the Canoe or Paper Birch (Betula papyracea).
1864. Lowell, Fireside Trav., 129. Never use the word canoe … if you wish to retain your selfrespect. Birch is the term among us backwoodsmen.
1884. E. Hale, Christmas in Narrag., i. 10. To paddle a birch across the lake.
4. Comb. and Attrib., as birch-broom, -knowe, -leaf, -stalk, -tree, -wand, -wood; birch-fringed, -shaded, adjs.; birch camphor, a resinous substance obtained from the bark of the Black Birch (B. nigra); birch oil, an oil extracted from the bark of the birch, and used in the preparation of Russia leather, to which it gives its smell; birch-rod = BIRCH 2; birch-water, the sap obtained from the birch-tree in spring; birch-wine, wine prepared from birch-water.
1762. Churchill, Ghost, II. 306. Hark! something scratches round the room! A cat, a rat, a stubb’d *birch-broom.
1796. Mrs. Glasse, Cookery, xxii. 348. Scrub them well with a little *birch-broom or brush.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., II. iii. That it [the soul] … could be acted on through the muscular integument by appliance of *birch rods.
1879. Act 42–3 Vict., xlix. 10. Such young person to be … privately whipped with not more than twelve strokes of a *birch rod by a constable.
1530. Palsgr., 198/1. *Byrche tree, boulliav.
1876. Grant, Burgh Sch. Scot., II. v. 196. Striking some on the hand with a *birch-wand.
1663. Boyle, Usefulness Nat. Philos., II. iv. 103. The great commendation … given to this *Birch-water.
1769. Mrs. Raffald, Eng. Housekpr. (1778), 325. Boil twenty gallons of birch water.
1681. Lond. Gaz., No. 1616/4. *Birch-Wine rightly prepared, and made of the Sap of Birch Trees.
1853. Lindley, Veg. Kingd. (ed. 3), 252. Birch wine has a popular reputation as a remedy for stone and gravel.
1849. Southey, Comm.-pl. Bk., Ser. II. 615. Horns made of *birch-wood.
1860. G. H. K., Vac. Tour, 135. The old birch-woods still linger here and there.
