oleaster

[oh-lee-as-ter]

noun

1. an ornamental shrub or small tree, Elaeagnus angustifolia, of Eurasia, having fragrant yellow flowers and an olivelike fruit.

oleaster

/ ˌəʊlɪˈæstə /

noun

1. any of several shrubs of the genus Elaeagnus, esp E. angustifolia, of S Europe, Asia, and North America, having silver-white twigs, yellow flowers, and an olive-like fruit: family Elaeagnaceae

2. Also called: wild olive. a wild specimen of the cultivated olive

Word History and Origins

Origin of oleaster¹

before 1000; Middle English < Latin: wild olive tree, derivative of olea olive

Word History and Origins

Origin of oleaster¹

Latin: from olea; see _olive , _oil

Example Sentences

Those attuned to nature’s clues will spot the trees on the streets change from usual suspects to rarer salt-tolerant species, like oleasters, just before the sea appears.

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Some punster will say, respecting oleaster, that it is olea sterilis.

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—Can any of your correspondents tell me why the termination aster is used in a depreciatory sense in Latin, as poetaster, a bad poet; oleaster, the wild olive; pinaster, the wild pine?

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Olive be admitted, tho’ it produce no other fruit than the verdure of the leaf; nor will it kindly breath our air, nor the less tender oleaster, without the indulgent winter-house take them in.

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Take for a sign the plenteous growth hard by Of oleaster, and the fields strewn wide With woodland berries.

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