Hollin

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An evergreen shrub or tree with glossy, spiny leaves and red berries, known in older English and Scots usage
2. A prickly-leaved evergreen with red berries, traditionally used as a Christmas decoration and called holly in modern English
3. The spiny-leaved evergreen plant bearing red berries, an archaic or dialect name for the holly bush or tree

Etymology: Holly has a dialect cousin that sounds much like it: "hollin," still heard in parts of northern England and Scotland for the same prickly evergreen. The name goes back to Old English "holegn" or "holen," which is also the root of the modern word "holly," and the two are close relatives that took different paths, with "hollin" preserving an older, more conservative pronunciation. The most surprising twist is that the Old English form had a second meaning entirely separate from the plant: "holegn" could also mean "prince" or "protector." Scholars connect the plant name to the Proto-West Germanic "*hulis," and the sense of a ruler is thought to have arisen from the same root, though the link between a prickly tree and a lord is not fully explained.

Synonyms: holly