pollard

See also: Pollard

English

WOTD – 29 June 2008

A pollard willow.

Etymology

From poll (“head, scalp”) +‎ -ard. The coin sense derives from the original penny's uncrowned obverse bust, as opposed to the laurel-wreathed form appearing on the rosary. The verb derives from the noun.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɒl.əd/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈpɑ.lɚd/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (AU)

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Noun

pollard (plural pollards)

1. (often attributive) A pruned tree; the wood of such trees.
   • 1869, Richard Doddridge Blackmore, “Chapter 65”, in Lorna Doone:

     Only a little pollard hedge kept us from their blood-shot eyes.

   • 1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 98:

     Nothing was to be seen save flat meadows, cows feeding unconcernedly for the most part, and silvery pollard willows motionless in the warm sunlight.

   • 1903, Howard Pyle, The Story of King Arthur and His Knights, Part III, Chapter Third, page 116

     And at this place there was a long, straight causeway, with two long rows of pollard willows, one upon either hand.

2. A buck deer that has shed its antlers.
3. A hornless variety of domestic animal, such as cattle or goats.
4. (obsolete, rare) A European chub (Squalius cephalus, syn. Leuciscus cephalus), a kind of fish.
5. (now Australia) A fine grade of bran including some flour. The fine cell layer between bran layers and endosperm, used for animal feed.
6. (numismatics, historical) A 13th-century European coin minted as a debased counterfeit of the sterling silver penny of Edward I of England, at first legally accepted as a halfpenny and then outlawed.

   Coordinate terms: crockard, rosary, mitre, leonine, scalding, steeping, eagle

Translations

pruned tree

• Finnish: karsittu puu

buck deer that has shed its antlers

hornless variety of domestic animal

• Finnish: nupopää, nutipää

Squalius cephalus — see European chub

fine grade of bran

numismatics: certain 13th-century European coin

Verb

pollard (third-person singular simple present pollards, present participle pollarding, simple past and past participle pollarded)

1. (horticulture) To prune a tree heavily, cutting branches back to the trunk, so that it produces dense new growth.
   • 1910, Edward Morgan Forster, chapter 11, in Howards End:

     I didn't know one could pollard elms. I thought one only pollarded willows.

   • 2019, Ian McEwan, Machines Like Me, Jonathan Cape, page 287:

     I walked up the path, passing under a heavily pollarded oak.

Translations

to prune

• Bulgarian: кастря (bg) (kastrja)
• Finnish: karsia (fi), latvoa
• French: trogne (fr)
• Galician: fradar, demoucar, decotar, cepar (gl)
• Macedonian: кастри impf (kastri)

Further reading

• pollard on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• pollarding on Wikipedia.Wikipedia