ivy

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“
The cabbage, the vine, and the ivy are the best and most beautiful leaves: oak is a little too stiff, otherwise good.

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Definitions (35)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun Any of several woody, climbing or trailing evergreen plants of the genus Hedera native to the Old World, especially H. helix, having palmately lobed leaves, root-bearing young stems, and small green flowers grouped in umbels.
  2. noun Informal A university in the Ivy League. Often used in the plural: Cornell is one of the Ivies.

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Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English ivi, from Old English īfig.

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  1. Early modern English also ivie, ive; from Middle English ivy, from Anglo-Saxon ifig, ivy; early modern English also iven, etc. (see iven), from Anglo-Saxon ifegn, ivy; = Old High German ebah, Middle High German ebich, ivy; also in a deriv. form, Old High German ebawi, ebahewi, Middle High German ebehön, ephöu, epföu, German epheu, ivy. The G. forms apparently simulate G. heu, hay, and are also confused with the forms of eppich (Old High German ephi, etc.), parsley, in modern G. also ivy, from Latin apium, parsley.
  2. Formerly also ivie, and properly ive (chiefly in herb-ivy, herb-ive); from Old French ive (also called ive arthretique or ive muscate or musquee) = Spanish Portuguese Italian iva (New Latin iva: see Iva), groundpine, herb-ivy, a feminine form, corresponding to F. if (Middle Latin ivus), masculine, yew, from Old High German īwa, Middle High German ībe, German eibe = Anglo-Saxon īw, English yew: see ife and yew. The New Latin form is sometimes spelled iba, a form suggesting or suggested by a confusion with the different name, L. abiga (sometimes miswritten ibiga), also ajuga, ground-pine (Ajuga Chamæpitys): see abigeat.
  3. ivy, n.
 

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/ˈaɪvi/
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