Ivies

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A climbing or trailing plant that has small, lobed leaves and attaches itself to surfaces using aerial roots
2. A type of evergreen plant known for its ability to cover walls and trees with a distinctive foliage pattern
3. A perennial climbing vine, often associated with growth on buildings, that is characterized by its ivy-like leaves and ability to thrive in various environments

Etymology: "Ivies" is simply the plural of "ivy," so the word's story is really the story of the plant's name. That name goes back to Old English "īfiġ," which in turn descends from a Proto-Germanic form, "ibahs," shared with modern German "Efeu" and Low German "Eiloov," so the word has been circulating among Germanic speakers for well over a thousand years. Its deeper ancestry is more tangled. Scholars link it to a very old Indo-European root, reconstructed as "h₁ebʰ-," which also appears in Welsh "efwr," meaning "black elder," and in Ancient Greek "íphuon," a term for a spike-lavender. The shared root hints that the plant's name once belonged to a wider family of words for different aromatic or woody plants, though the plant it named was the climbing one we know today.

Synonyms: climbing plants, vines