Thorne

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A sharp, pointed woody projection growing from the stem or branch of a plant, often serving as a defense against animals
2. A stiff, needle-like spike that protrudes from a plant's stem or twig as a protective feature
3. A pointed hardened outgrowth on a plant stem that pricks or wounds anything touching it

Etymology: Thorne is an old English word for a prickly shrub, and its story is mostly one of sound and spelling rather than meaning. In Old English it was "thorn," the sharp spine of a bush or tree, and the thorn bush itself, which is an ancient and widespread word in the Germanic languages. The modern spelling "thorne" is a later fashion. Writers in the Middle Ages and early modern period often added a final silent "e" to words, and that habit, combined with a taste for antique-looking names, gave us the form still used as a surname. Because "Thorne" as a surname was common in England, many people with this name took it from a place or from a dweller near a thorn bush, and the spelling was sometimes fixed in parish records long before anyone standardized English spelling. The surname and the ordinary noun therefore share a root, though the surname usually survives in its more ornamental spelling.