zizyphushttp://www.oed.com/dictionary/zizyphus_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_usezizyphus, n.
Revised 2021

zizyphusnoun

Botany.
  1. ?1440–
    Any of various spiny shrubs or trees of warm and subtropical regions comprising the genus Ziziphus (family Rhamnaceae), several of which bear an edible fruit (see jujube n. 1). Cf. zizypha n.
    1. (?1440)
      Now zizifus [c1450 Bodleian MS. Add. ȝiȝyphus; Latin zizyfum] in cold lond wole ascende.
      translation of Palladius, De re Rustica (Duke Humfrey MS.) (1896) vii. l. 84
      [Composed ?1440]
    2. 1597
      Neither doth Columella or Plinie vnaduisedly take this for Ziziphus.
      J. Gerard, Herball 1307
    3. 1693
      Oenoplia a sort of Zizyphus.
      N. Staphorst, translation of L. Rauwolf, Trav. Eastern Countries iii. viii, in J. Ray, Collection of Curious Travels vol. I. 325
    4. 1712
      Jujuba, or Zizipha, a large Fruit of the Ziziph Tree.
      J. Browne, translation of P. Pomet et al. Compleat History of Druggs vol. I. 134
    5. 1741
      It seems to me more probable that the Lotus of the Lotophagi is what we now call Zizyphus or the Jujube-tree.
      J. Martyn, translation of Virgil, Georgicks ii. 84 (note)
    6. 1865
      The zizyphus and caper crept higher up the hills.
      H. B. Tristram, Land of Israel xxii. 527
    7. 1882
      We are..still camped under a spreading ziziphus.
      E. A. Floyer, Unexplored Baluchistan 265
    8. 1890
      The Crown of Thorns at Notre Dame is made of plaited reeds, in which ziziphus thorns are intertwined.
      Daily News 5 April 6/1
    9. 1919
      For most of the year the water-holes sufficed them, the green, velvet dips, with zizyph-bushes fringing each hollow, which redeem the desert.
      E. J. Thompson, Leicestershires beyond Baghdad v. 110
    10. 1991
      The canal was lined with new forests of tamarisk, ziziphus and mesquite.
      Traveller Winter 27/3

zizyphus, n. was revised in March 2021.

zizyphus, n. was last modified in July 2023.