cornel

[kawr-nl]

noun

any tree or shrub of the genus Cornus; dogwood.

Origin of cornel

1400–50; late Middle English corneille < Middle French < Vulgar Latin *cornicul(a), equivalent to Latin corn(us) cornel + -i- -i- + -cula -cule¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for cornel

Contemporary Examples of cornel

Tavis Smiley, the PBS talk show host and close friend to Cornel West, often credits West with having a “useable intellect.”
Cornel West’s Disappointing Decline
David Masciotra
October 23, 2014
Cornel West and Jesse Jackson, for instance, have both suggested that Obama is somehow not black enough.
Obama Should Talk About Being Biracial
David Kaufman
January 20, 2013
Others secretly agree with Cornel West and Tavis Smiley, who have been unremitting in their criticism of Obama on matters of race.
An Obama Campaign Photo That Looks Like a Young Republican Rally
Mansfield Frazier
April 10, 2012
And one who denounced Harry Belafonte and Cornel West to boot!
Michael Tomasky: How Herman Cain’s Vanity Sank His Campaign
Michael Tomasky
December 1, 2011
Plus, great thinkers from Cornel West to Robert Reich tell us what they're angry about.
America the Angry
Doug Schoen
June 4, 2011

Historical Examples of cornel

Your father was a common so'dier and his was cornel o' the regiment!'
Heather and Snow
George MacDonald
He may be your late husband, mem, but he's my cornel yet, and I s' keep my word til him!
Heather and Snow
George MacDonald
Cornel is a kind of wood of great hardness used for making bows.
English Narrative Poems
Various
And Circ shut them in sties, and gave them mast and acorns and cornel to eat.
Stories of the Old world
Alfred John Church
And when you cam, Cornel, we were awfu' anxious you should never hear.
Great Ghost Stories
Various

British Dictionary definitions for cornel

cornel

noun

any cornaceous plant of the genus Cornus, such as the dogwood and dwarf cornel

Word Origin for cornel

C16: probably from Middle Low German kornelle, from Old French cornelle, from Vulgar Latin cornicula (unattested), from Latin cornum cornel cherry, from cornus cornel tree

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 cornel

a type of tree or shrub with an edible fruit, 1550s, from German cornel-baum, from Old High German cornul, from Medieval Latin cornolium, from French cornouille, from Vulgar Latin *cornuculum, from Latin cornum "cornel-cherry," perhaps related to Greek kerasos "cherry." Old English also had borrowed the Latin word, in corntreow. The plant was noted for its hard wood, favored by the ancients for making shafts of spears and arrows.