Something got me thinking about trees the other day. Oak trees and elm trees, pines and poplars, magnolias and willows. Here in North Louisiana, we also have abundant peach and pecan orchards.
Then the ash tree popped into my head. Ash trees are robust, hardy trees, certainly. But where did the name come from? It’s as if whoever named it decided to call it by the moniker of what’s left behind when you destroy it.
I can’t think of any other objects named in that way. Wouldn’t that equate to naming vehicles things like a “Ford Crash” or a “Dodge Wreck”?
What about toiletries, like “Poo Smear Toilet Tissue” or “Dirty Spit Toothpaste”?
It’s hard to imagine the thought process that went into naming the ash tree, unless, perhaps that was the first kind of tree humans ever witnessed burning.
Turns out, this is all based on a false premise.
The Old English word for the tree was æsc. The Old English word for the stuff left after a fire was asce. They were completely different words that somehow arrived in modern English wearing the same outfit.
Æsc did also come to mean “spear,” because ash wood was particularly good for making spear shafts. So there is a perfectly logical lexicographic explanation for all of this.
Which is disappointing.
I still prefer to believe somebody looked at the first burned-up tree and said, “Well, I guess we know what to call those now.”
Next Arbor Day, I think I’ll drive out and plant an ash tree in my Chevy Scrapper.