twissel

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English twisel, twisil, from Old English twisel (forked, double), from Old English twisla (confluence, junction), from Proto-Germanic *twisilą (fork, bifurcation), from Proto-Indo-European *dwis- (twice, in two). Cognate with German Zwiesel (fork).

Adjective

twissel (comparative more twissel, superlative most twissel)

  1. (obsolete) Double; twofold.

Noun

twissel (plural twissels)

  1. (rare) A double fruit or a pair of like things growing on a tree.
    • 16thC, George Turberville, The Louer, in 1810, Samuel Johnson (series editor & biographies), Alexander Chalmers (additional biographies), The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper, Volume II, page 599,
      As from a tree we sundrie times espie / A twissell grow by Nature's subtile might / And beeing two, for cause they grow so nie / For one are tane, and so appeare in sight;
  2. (rare) That part of a tree where the branches separate from the trunk or bole; a fork.

Anagrams

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