pollard

See also: Pollard

WOTD – 29 June 2008

Contents

EnglishEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Middle English poll (“pate, scalp”) + -ard. The coin sense derives from the original penny's uncrowned obverse bust, as opposed to the laurel-wreathed form appearing on the rosary. The verb derives from the noun.

PronunciationEdit

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɒl.əd/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈpɑ.lɚd/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

NounEdit

pollard (plural pollards)

A pollard willow.

1. (often attributive) A pruned tree; the wood of such trees.
   • 1869, Richard Doddridge Blackmore, Lorna Doone, Chapter 65,

     Only a little pollard hedge kept us from their blood-shot eyes.

2. A buck deer that has shed its antlers.
3. A hornless variety of domestic animal, as cattle or goats.
4. (obsolete, rare) The European chub (Leuciscus cephalus), a kind of fish.
5. (now Australia) A fine grade of bran including some flour.
6. (numismatics, historical) 13th-century European coins minted as debased counterfeits of the sterling silver penny of Edward I of England, at first legally accepted as a halfpenny and then outlawed.

See alsoEdit

• (13th-c. counterfeit coin): crockard, rosary, mitre, leonine, scalding, steeping, eagle

VerbEdit

pollard (third-person singular simple present pollards, present participle pollarding, simple past and past participle pollarded)

1. (horticulture) To prune a tree heavily, cutting branches back to the trunk, so that it produces dense new growth.
   • 1910, Edward Morgan Forster, Howards End, Chapter 11,

     I didn't know one could pollard elms. I thought one only pollarded willows.