Category:Thorn

Thorn, n. Etym: [as. þorn; akin to os. & ofries. thorn, d. doorn, g. Dorn, dan. torn, sw. törne, icel. þorn, goth. þaúrnus; cf. Pol. tarn, Russ. tern' the blackthorn, ternie thorns, skr. trsnsa grass, blade Of grass. *53.]

1. A hard and sharp-pointed projection from a woody stem; usually, a Branch so transformed; a spine.

2. (bot.)

Defn: any shrub or small tree which bears thorns; especially, any Species of the genus cratægus, as the hawthorn, whitethorn, cockspur Thorn.

3. Fig.: That which pricks or annoys as a thorn; anything Troublesome; trouble; care. There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of satan to Buffet me. 2 cor. xii. 7. The guilt of empire, all its thorns and cares, be only mine. Southern.

4. The name of the anglo-saxon letter th, as in thin, then. So called Because it was the initial letter of thorn, a spine. Thorn apple (bot.), Jamestown weed. -- thorn broom (bot.), a shrub that produces thorns. -- thorn hedge, a hedge of thorn-bearing trees or bushes. -- thorn devil. (zoöl.) See moloch, 2. -- thorn hopper (zoöl.), a tree hopper (thelia cratægi) which lives On the thorn bush, apple tree, and allied trees.

Thorn Thorn, v. t.

Defn: to prick, as with a thorn. [poetic] I am the only rose of all the stock that never thorn'd him. Tennyson.

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---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Thorn - (1.) Heb. hedek (Proverbs 15:19), rendered " brier " in Micah 7:4. Some thorny plant, of the Solanum family, suitable for hedges. This is probably the so-called "apple of Sodom," which grows very abundantly in the Jordan valley. "It is a shrubby plant, from 3 to 5 feet high, with very branching stems, thickly clad with spines, like those of the English brier, with leaves very large and woolly on the under side, and thorny on the midriff." (2.) Heb. kotz (Genesis 3:18; Hosea 10:8), rendered akantha by the LXX. In the New Testament this word akantha is also rendered "thorns" (Matthew 7:16; Matthew 13:7; Hebrews 6:8). The word seems to denote any thorny or prickly plant (Jeremiah 12:13). It has been identified with the Ononis spinosa by some. (3.) Heb. na'atzutz (Isaiah 7:19; Isaiah 55:13). This word has been interpreted as denoting the Zizyphus spina Christi, or the jujube tree. It is supposed by some that the crown of thorns placed in wanton cruelty by the Roman soldiers on our Saviour's brow before his crucifixion was plaited of branches of this tree. It overruns a great part of the Jordan valley. It is sometimes called the lotus-tree. "The thorns are long and sharp and recurved, and often create a festering wound." It often grows to a great size. (See CROWN OF THORNS.) (4.) Heb. atad (Psalms 58:9) is rendered in the LXX. and Vulgate by Rhamnus, or Lycium Europoeum, a thorny shrub, which is common all over Palestine. From its resemblance to the box it is frequently called the box-thorn.