pollard

See also: Pollard

WOTD – 29 June 2008

English

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

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

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Noun

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.

   • 1903, Howard Pyle, The Story of King Arthur and His Knights, Part III, Chapter Third, page 116

     And at this place there was a long, straight causeway, with two long rows of pollard willows, one upon either hand.

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

See also

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

Verb

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.

Translations

prune

• Galician: fradar, demoucar, decotar, cepar (gl)