service tree
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.76 in modern English
16
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Either of two rare Old World deciduous trees, Sorbus domestica or Sorbus torminalis.
Example Sentences
- "Wild cherry and rowan, as well as wild apple, wild pear, wild service tree, whitebeam, and true service tree, are all affected by being nibbled by voles, mice and other wild animals."
- "In England, the wild service tree (sorbus torminalis) is regarded as an indicator of ancient woodland although there is little written about it in books on the subject."
- "The wild service tree is very local in our study area.[…]At the time when these wild service trees had ripe fruit the much more abundant hawthorns, as well as a number of other plants, were providing alternative sources of fruit, which were probably safer to exploit than the service tree’s fruit 3—15 m up on terminal twigs of the leafless branches."
Etymology
Properly, the tree that bears sorb fruit, from Middle English serves, plural of serve (“sorb apple, serviceberry”), from Old English syrfe, from Vulgar Latin *sorbea, from Latin sorbus (“service tree”). See sorb. Not related to service, though it influenced its spelling