Definition
nounA deciduous tree with distinctive deeply lobed leaves, acorns, and notably strong wood, typically of England and northeastern North America, included in genus Quercus.
Sentence Examples
Are there oak trees on the hill?
An old oak is groaning in the storm.
They have a gorgeous old oak tree in their front yard.
Word Origin & History
Inherited from Middle English ake, hok, oek, ok, oke, from Old English aac, āc, ǣċ, from Proto-West Germanic *aik, from Proto-Germanic *aiks (“oak”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyǵ- (“oak”).
Cognates
From Proto-Germanic: Scots aik, ake, yik (“oak”), North Frisian iake, iik (“oak”), Saterland Frisian Eeke (“oak”), West Frisian iik (“oak”), Cimbrian aicha, oach (“oak”), Dutch eik (“oak”), German Eiche (“oak”), Luxembourgish Eech (“oak”), Vilamovian aach, aeh́, ǡh́ (“oak”), Danish eg (“oak”), Faroese, Icelandic, and Norwegian Nynorsk eik (“oak”), Norwegian Bokmål eik, ek (“oak”), Swedish ek (“oak”).
From Proto-Indo-European: Latin aesculus (“Italian oak”), Ancient Greek αἰγίλωψ (aigílōps, “Turkey oak”), Albanian enjë (“English yew; stinking juniper”), Latvian ozols (“oak”), Lithuanian ąžuolas (“oak”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"It was not far from the house; but the ground sank into a depression there, and the ridge of it behind shut out everything except just the roof of the tallest hayrick. As one sat on the sward behind the elm, with the back turned on the rick and nothing in front but the tall elms and the oaks in the other hedge, it was quite easy to fancy it the verge of the prairie with the backwoods close by."
— 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:
"Instead there were the white of aspens, streaks of branch and slender trunk glistening from the green of leaves, and the darker green of oaks, and through the middle of this forest, from wall to wall, ran a winding line of brilliant green which marked the course of cottonwoods and willows."
— 1912 January, Zane Grey, chapter 8, in Riders of the Purple Sage […], New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC:
"[E]very set of rooms has two doors, and I soon learned that the outer door, which is thick and solid, is called the oak, and to shut it is termed, to sport."
— 1833, Thomas Jefferson Hogg, chapter 2, in Shelley at Oxford, London: Methuen:
"It was hardly the thing for a master to sport his oak where another member of the staff was concerned."
— 1930, Frank Richards, The Magnet: Prout's Lovely Black Eye: