www.alphadictionary.com

Put the Tree back in Christmas-tree!

Today's history of Christmas-tree went into detail on Christmas but ignored Tree. I can't find a page where you did a full analysis of the word.

Did I miss a way to search just past goodwords? I found Tree all over with several main site and forum searches, mentioned in many discussions, but I didn't catch it playing the leading roll.

Tree has over a dozen noun meanings, and several verb meanings. My old print OED has over seven columns for Tree with another page in the volume III supplement.

Fun tie-in; it turns out that Dante Alighieri and Jimmy Durante are related! At least etymologically:

*dreu-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "be firm, solid, steadfast," with specialized senses "wood," "tree" and derivatives referring to objects made of wood.

Dante is a shortening of Durante. Who'd'a thunk?

The same root is also there in lots of other words, some of which have been treated by the Good Doctor; troth, tryst, and indurate are 3.