Definitions

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any small tree or twining shrub of the genus Celastrus

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From the early modern misidentification of bittersweet (Celastrus) as the tree called kēlastros in Greek (actually the holly Ilex aquifolium), said by Theophrastus to have wood useful only for making staves for the elderly .]

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