tupelon.
/ˈtuːpɪləʊ/ Native name of trees of the North American genus Nyssa (N.O. Alangiaceæ or Nyssaceæ), large trees growing in swamps or on river banks in the southern states; esp. N. villosa or multiflora (also called Black or Sour Gum, and Pepperidge), and the large tupelo or tupelo gum ( N. uniflora), which produces a light tough timber.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular timber trees or shrubs > non-British timber trees > [noun] > tupelo
gum tree1676
black-gum1709
white gum1709
tupelo1731
Nyssa1754
sour gum1814
pipperidge1823
pepperidge1826
1731 C. Mortimer in Philos. Trans. 1729–30 (Royal Soc.) 36 434 The Water Tupelo.
1756 P. Collinson Let. 20 Jan. in W. D. Darlington Memorials J. Bartram & H. Marshall (1849) 202 Billy's drawing and painting of the Tupelo, is fine.
1816 W. Darby Geogr. Descr. Louisiana iv. 62 The tupeloo is known in Louisiana by the popular name of olive.
1864 J. R. Lowell Fireside Trav. 42 Maple, and the rarer tupelo with downward limbs.
1865 F. Parkman Champlain ix, in Pioneers of France in New World 305 The garnet hue of the young oaks, the bonfire blaze of the tupelo at the water's edge.
Compounds
C1. attributive, as tupelo-gum, tupelo-swamp, tupelo-tree.
ΚΠ
1731 C. Mortimer in Philos. Trans. 1729–30 (Royal Soc.) 36 431 The Tupelo Tree.
1765 in W. Stork Acc. East Florida (1766) 79 The low lands are partly cypress and tupelow swamps.
1885 in Milnor (Dakota Territory) Free Press 25 Apr. 5/5 The tupelo-gum and the willow-oak are timbers that are destined to a commercial value never until recently dreamed of.
1900 W. D. Howells in Scribner's Mag. Sept. 367/2 He wished to show me a tupelo-tree.
C2.
tupelo-tent n. a surgical tent made of the spongy wood of the root of the tupelo.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1915; most recently modified version published online December 2020).
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n.1731