The story
- Old English · inherited fromgealgtrēow
- Middle English · inherited fromgalowetre
- English todaygallows tree
From earlier gallow tree, from Middle English galowetre, galwe tree, from Old English gealgtrēow, equivalent to gallows + tree. Cognate with Danish galgetræ, Swedish galgträd, Norwegian galgetre, Icelandic gálgatré. Compare also West Frisian galgebeam, German Galgenbaum.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.