Obs. Forms: 1 pyfel, -pel, 3 puuel. [OE. þýfel (or ? þýfel: see Note below), early ME. þuvel(ü).] A bush, a thicket.
a. 1000. Ags. Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 244/20, 22. Frutectum, i. arborum densitas, uel ramus, þyfel. Frutex, frutecta, þyfel.
c. 1000. Lambeth Ps. lxxix. 11. His þyþelas vel twygu, arbusta eius.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gram., Nom. Arb. (Z.), 312. Frutex, þyfel. Ibid. (c. 1000), Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 139/24. Spina, uel sentrix, þyfel.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., I. 98. ʓenim þysse wyrte þe we leon fot nemdon fif ðyfelas butan wyrttruman.
a. 1250. Owl & Night., 278. Vor þi ich am loþ smale vowele [v.r. foȝ(e)le] Þat fleoþ bi grunde & bi þuuele.
[Note. The length of the stem vowel in OE. is disputed; the dictionaries generally have þýfel, viewing it as a derivative of þûf, tuft of leaves; Sievers thinks that the y was certainly short. Whether þyfel or þývel, the form agrees remarkably with that of THIVEL a pot-stick; but no connection of sense has been found, and there is a gap both of time and place between the Dorsetshire þuvel of 1250 and the Yorkshire thyvelle of 1483.]
