withe

Meanings

1. A flexible, slender shoot or twig, especially when used as a band or for binding; a withy.
2. A band of twisted twigs.
3. An elastic handle to a tool to save the hand from the shock of blows.
4. An iron attachment on one end of a mast or boom, with a ring, through which another mast or boom is rigged out and secured.
5. Alternative spelling of wythe (“single section of bricks one unit thick”).
6. Alternative spelling of wythe (“partition between flues in a chimney”).

1. To bind with withes.
2. To beat with withes.

Etymology

From Middle English withe, withthe, from Old English wiþe, wiþþe (“cord, band, thong, fetter”), from Proto-Germanic *wiþiz, *wiþjǭ (“cord, rope”), from Proto-Indo-European *wéh₁itis (“that which twines”), from *weyt- (“that which winds or bends, branch, switch”), from Proto-Indo-European *wey- (“to turn, wind, bend”). Cognate with Danish vidje (“wicker”), Swedish vidja (“withe, wicker, osier”), Icelandic við, viðja (“a withe”), Latin vītis (“vine”), Russian ветвь (vetvʹ, “branch, bough, limb”). Doublet of vice (“a type of tool, etc.”). The brickwork and chimney architecture senses may have a different etymology, see wythe.