birch

English

Wikipedia

Birch trees Betula pendula (1)

Pronunciation

• enPR: bû(r)ch, IPA: /bɜː(r)tʃ/, X-SAMPA: /b3:(r)tS/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(r)tʃ

Etymology

From Middle English birche, birk, from Old English birce, bierce, from Proto-Germanic *birkijǭ (compare West Frisian bjirk, German Birke), variant of *berkō (compare Dutch berk, Swedish björk), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰérHǵos (compare Lithuanian béržas, Czech bříza, Ossetic bærz(æ)).

Noun

birch (plural birches)

1. any of various trees of the genus Betula, native to countries in the northern hemisphere.
2. a hard wood taken from the birch tree, typically used to make furniture.
3. a stick, rod or bundle of twigs made from birch wood, used for punishment.
4. A birch-bark canoe.

Derived terms

• birch sap
• black birch
• dwarf birch
• sweet birch

Translations

tree

• Abkhaz: please add this translation if you can
• Ainu: タッニ (tatni)
• Albanian: mështekër (sq)
• Arabic: بتولا (ar) (batūlā) f
• Armenian: կեչի (hy) (keči)
• Bashkir: ҡайын (qayïn)
• Belarusian: бяроза (be) (bjaróza) f
• Bulgarian: бреза (bg) (bréza) f
• Catalan: bedoll m
• Chechen: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 樺木 (cmn), 桦木 (cmn) (huàmù), 樺 (cmn), 桦 (cmn) (huà)

• Czech: bříza (cs) f
• Danish: birk (da)
• Dutch: berk (nl) m
• Esperanto: betulo (eo)
• Estonian: kask, kõiv
• Finnish: koivu, koivupuu
• French: bouleau (fr) m
• Galician: bidueiro m
• Georgian: როზგი (ka) (rozgi)
• German: Birke (de) f
• Greenlandic: orpik (kl)
• Hebrew: שדר (he) (shaddar) m
• Hungarian: nyír (hu)
• Icelandic: björk (is) f, birki (is) n, birkitré (is) n
• Italian: betulla (it) f
• Japanese: カバノキ (ja) (kabanoki)
• Korean: 자작나무 (ko) (jajak-namu), 박달나무 (ko) (bakdal-namu)

• Latgalian: bārzs m
• Latin: betula (la) f
• Latvian: bērzs (lv) m
• Lithuanian: beržas (lt) m
• Macedonian: бреза (mk) (bréza) f
• Navajo: kʼishchííʼ, naʼazhǫǫsh
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: bjørk (nb) m and f, bjerk (nb) m and f

  Nynorsk: bjørk (nn) f

• Occitan: beç (oc)
• Ossetian: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: brzoza (pl)
• Portuguese: bétula (pt) f
• Romanian: mesteacăn (ro)
• Romansch: badugn m
• Russian: берёза (ru) (berjóza) f
• Scottish Gaelic: beith (gd) f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: бреза (sh) f

  Roman: breza (sh) f

• Slovak: breza (sk) f
• Slovene: breza (sl) f
• Spanish: abedul (es) m
• Swahili: mbetula (sw)
• Swedish: björk (sv)
• Taos: tų́łęną
• Turkish: huş (tr)
• Ukrainian: береза (uk) (beréza) f

wood

• Danish: birk (da)
• Finnish: koivu, koivupuu
• Icelandic: birki (is) n

• Russian: берёза (ru) (ber'óza) f
• Swahili: ubao wa mbetula (sw)

punishment device

• Finnish: vitsa, koivuvitsa
• French: badine (fr) f, baguette (fr) f

• Polish: rózga f
• Russian: розга (ru) (rózga) f, прут (ru) (prut) m

Verb

birch (third-person singular simple present birches, present participle birching, simple past and past participle birched)

1. to punish with a stick, bundle of twigs, or rod made of birch wood.
2. to punish as though one were using a stick, bundle of twigs, or rod made of birch wood.

Translations

to punish with a birch

• Finnish: piiskata (fi)
• French: verger (fr)

• Russian: сечь розгами (ru) (rozgami)

to punish as if one were using a birch

• Finnish: piiskata, raipata

Derived terms

• birchen
• birch wood