sycamore

[sik-uh-mawr, -mohr]

noun

Also called buttonwood. any of several North American plane trees, especially Platanus occidentalis, having shallowly lobed ovate leaves, globular seed heads, and wood valued as timber.

British. the sycamore maple.

a tree, Ficus sycomorus, of the Near East, related to the common fig, bearing an edible fruit.

Origin of sycamore

1300–50; Middle English sicomore < Old French < Latin sȳcomorus < Greek sȳkómoros, equivalent to sŷko(n) fig + mór(on) mulberry + -os noun suffix, apparently by folk etymology < Semitic; compare Hebrew shiqmāh sycamore

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for sycamore

Contemporary Examples of sycamore

Beside the Scola Brothers Grocery is a sycamore, its branches silhouetted against the white wall.
Stanley Booth on the Life and Hard Times of Blues Genius Furry Lewis
Stanley Booth
June 7, 2014
“A Time to Kill is very autobiographical, and so is Sycamore Row,” Grisham acknowledged.
Still Killing Time: John Grisham Talks Broadway and “Sycamore Row”
Thane Rosenbaum
October 24, 2013
The two came to America in 1946, and he grew up in Sycamore.
Child-Murder Arrest After 53 Years
Winston Ross
August 6, 2011
In 1977, back-up singer/girlfriend Gloria Jones wrapped their purple Mini around a sycamore tree.
'T-Rex' Will Never Be Extinct
Simon Doonan
August 13, 2010

Historical Examples of sycamore

I think he signed his cut of sycamore, and not my cut at him.
The Confessions of a Caricaturist, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Harry Furniss
He came on slowly, and he leaned for rest against a sycamore at the edge of the pavement.
The Long Roll
Mary Johnston
The moon shines on the nightingale singing in the sycamore tree.
Working With the Working Woman
Cornelia Stratton Parker
Maple is sometimes Mapple and sycamore is corrupted into Sicklemore.
The Romance of Names
Ernest Weekley
I had not thought of beech or sycamore, but they are now sown.
More Letters of Charles Darwin Volume II
Charles Darwin

British Dictionary definitions for sycamore

sycamore

noun

a Eurasian maple tree, Acer pseudoplatanus, naturalized in Britain and North America, having five-lobed leaves, yellow flowers, and two-winged fruits

US and Canadian an American plane tree, Platanus occidentalisSee plane tree

Also: sycomore a moraceous tree, Ficus sycomorus, of N Africa and W Asia, having an edible figlike fruit

Word Origin for sycamore

C14: from Old French sicamor, from Latin sӯcomorus, from Greek sukomoros, from sukon fig + moron mulberry

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 sycamore

mid-14c., from Old French sicamor, from Latin sycomorus, from Greek sykomoros, from sykon "fig" + moron "mulberry." Or perhaps a folk-etymology for Hebrew shiqmah "mulberry." A Biblical word, originally used for a species of fig tree (Ficus sycomorus) common in Egypt, Syria, etc., whose leaves somewhat resemble those of the mulberry; applied from 1580s to Acer pseudoplatanus, a large species of European maple, and from 1814 to the North American shade tree that is also called buttonwood (Platanus occidentalis, introduced to Europe from Virginia 1637 by Filius Tradescant). Some writers have used the more Hellenic sycomore in reference to the Biblical tree for the sake of clarity.