arboricide
Feb. 6th, 2026 07:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prettygoodwordarboricide (ah-BOR-i-said) - n., an herbicide intended to kill trees or shrubs; (rare) the killing of a tree.
Or as the OED puts it, "the wanton destruction of trees." In memory of the large pine that, until yesterday, stood between our house and the neighbor's, shading us from the southwest. Its destruction was not wanton, however, as it like all too many pines in our neighborhood was dying (bark beetles). Coined in the 1890s from Latin roots arbor, tree + -cidium, killing (from caedere, to cut/kill).
---L.
Or as the OED puts it, "the wanton destruction of trees." In memory of the large pine that, until yesterday, stood between our house and the neighbor's, shading us from the southwest. Its destruction was not wanton, however, as it like all too many pines in our neighborhood was dying (bark beetles). Coined in the 1890s from Latin roots arbor, tree + -cidium, killing (from caedere, to cut/kill).
---L.
