arbour
[ahr-ber]
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arbor1
[ahr-ber]
- a leafy, shady recess formed by tree branches, shrubs, etc.
- a latticework bower intertwined with climbing vines and flowers.
- Obsolete. a grass plot; lawn; garden; orchard.
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Also especially British, ar·bour.
Origin of arbor1
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for arbour
Historical Examples
Then she went down to the arbour where she had shelled peas only that morning.
The Incomplete AmoristE. Nesbit
At the end of the walk was an arbour, in which I could see the glimmer of something white.
Wilfrid CumbermedeGeorge MacDonald
May I tell Monsieur Jules to serve breakfast for two in the arbour there?
The AvengerE. Phillips Oppenheim
Will you sit in that arbour where I first talked to yourself and Miss Ross?
Against OddsLawrence L. Lynch
When they had been sitting in the arbour for a quarter of an hour or so she became loquacious.
Despair's Last JourneyDavid Christie Murray
arbour
- a leafy glade or bower shaded by trees, vines, shrubs, etc, esp when trained about a trellis
- obsolete an orchard, garden, or lawn
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Word Origin
C14 erber, from Old French herbier, from Latin herba grass
arbor1
- the US spelling of arbour
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arbor2
- a rotating shaft in a machine or power tool on which a milling cutter or grinding wheel is fitted
- a rotating shaft or mandrel on which a workpiece is fitted for machining
- metallurgy a part, piece, or structure used to reinforce the core of a mould
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Word Origin
C17: from Latin: tree, mast
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for arbour
arbor
n.
c.1300, herber, "herb garden," from Old French erbier "field, meadow; kitchen garden," from Latin herba "grass, herb" (see herb). Later "a grassy plot" (early 14c., a sense also in Old French), "a shaded nook" (mid-14c.). Probably not from Latin arbor "tree," though perhaps influenced by its spelling.
The change from er- to ar- before consonants in Middle English also reflects a pronunciation shift: cf. farm from ferme, harbor from Old English herebeorg.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
arbor
(är′bər)- A treelike anatomical structure.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.