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Origin and history of boxwood

boxwood(n.)

also box-wood, "wood of the box-tree," fine and hard-grained, used for handles, etc., 1650s, from box (n.3) + wood (n.).

also from 1650s

Entries linking to boxwood

box(n.3)

genus of small evergreen trees, Old English, from Latin buxus, from Greek pyxos "box tree," which is of uncertain origin. Beekes suggests a loan-word from Italy, as that is where the tree is native. Compare box (n.1).

wood(n.)

Old English wudu, earlier widu "tree, trees collectively, forest, grove; the substance of which trees are made," from Proto-Germanic *widu-, from PIE *widhu- "tree, wood" (source also of Welsh gwydd "trees," Gaelic fiodh- "wood, timber," Old Irish fid "tree, wood"). Germanic cognates include Old Norse viðr, Danish and Swedish ved "tree, wood," Old High German witu "wood."

Sometimes in Old English it was used generically for "wild" as opposed to "domesticated" (wudubucca "wild goat," wudufugol "wild bird," wudurose "wild rose;" wudu-honig "wild honey;" wudu-æppel "crab-apple"), perhaps reflecting the dense forests that carpeted much of old England just beyond the cultivated areas.

As "printing wood-blocks," as distinguished from metallic types, by 1839. Used for the largest-size characters ("Japan Surrenders"), in tabloid newspapers it came to be shorthand for "lead headline."

As an adjective, "made of wood, wooden," by 1530s.

Out of the woods, figuratively "safe," is by 1792.

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