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lignify (LIG-nuh-feye) - v., to become or cause to become woody; to turn to wood.
This is a real botanical process, in which lignin is deposited in the cell walls -- how twigs turn in to sticks. But I'm also reminded of the Queen of Elfland's parting shot to Tam Lin, that if she'd known what was going to happen, she would have turned his eyes to tree (that is, to wood). Coined in the 1820s, either directly in English or by borrowing French lignifier, from Latin root līgnum, wood + -ify, to make (suffix, from Latin -facere).
---L.
This is a real botanical process, in which lignin is deposited in the cell walls -- how twigs turn in to sticks. But I'm also reminded of the Queen of Elfland's parting shot to Tam Lin, that if she'd known what was going to happen, she would have turned his eyes to tree (that is, to wood). Coined in the 1820s, either directly in English or by borrowing French lignifier, from Latin root līgnum, wood + -ify, to make (suffix, from Latin -facere).
---L.
