The classical Latin name of that plant, iuniperus, cannot
be explained satisfactorily; possibly, it is a Celtic loan. Names of
juniper in several European languages, especially Romance languages,
derive from that name: Besides English juniper, we have
Dutch jeneverbes, Italian ginepro,
Spanish enebro (Old Spanish ginebro),
Provençal genèbre,
Romanian ienupăr and even
Hebrew juniper [ג'וניפר].
In English, the French loan juniper supplanted the
Old English name of that plant, cwicbēam “life-tree” (modern quickbeam),
which was also used for rowan (mountain ash, Sorbus aucuparia).
The German name Wacholder (of which Machandel
is a Northern variant) contains a stem which might be related
to wachsen “grow” (cf. English wax “increase”), but is
more probably derived from the Indo-European root WEG- “weave, web” (cf.
English veil, wick), since its branches have been used for
weaving. Incidentally, the same root also lies behind English wax as
in beewax.
The Germanic tree suffix d(e)r, as seen in Wacholder, appears in several other German plant names. At the
bottom lies Indo-European DERU with the basic meaning “tree,
particularly oak” and the derived meaning “strong, firm, reliable”.
This is a very prominent root, which hardly any Indo-European language is
free of: Gothic triu “tree, wood”,
Sanskrit darvi [दर्वि] “wooden”,
Farsi dar [دار] “wood”,
Greek drys [δρῦς] “tree, oak”,
Old Irish daur “oak”,
Russian derevo [дерево] “tree”,
Latvian darva “tar”, furthermore
Latin durus “strong, robust”,
Lithuanian drūtas “thick, strong” and
Old English trum “strong, firm”.
Examples from Modern English include tree,
tray, tar, true and trust.
In some Middle Eastern languages, cinnamon
bears the name “Chinese wood”, where the latter element is represented
by words of the DERU kin, e.g.,
Hindi dal chini [दालचीनी].
See cassia for a more detailed discussion. Another
spice plant name which might derive from that root is “laurel”.
