Ashgrove

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A small wooded area made up mainly of ash trees, standing together in a cluster
2. A stand of ash trees growing closely together to form a shaded patch of woodland
3. Woodland consisting chiefly of ash trees, grouped together in a compact grove

Etymology: "Ashgrove" is a transparent compound: "ash," the tree, placed before "grove," a small wood or stand of trees. "Ash" comes from Old English "æsc," which goes back to a Germanic word shared with Old Norse "askr" and German "Esche." The English name for the tree has stayed nearly the same for over a thousand years. "Grove" is the more surprising half. It is related to "grave," and both trace back to Old English "graf," which originally meant a pit or trench dug into the ground. The link between a hollow in the earth and a stand of trees is not obvious today, but the two senses were close enough in early English to share a root. As a name, the compound appears in English as a place name and as a surname, where it simply describes a place where ash trees grew.