Etymology

shrub

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Today it means: A woody plant smaller than a tree, and usually with several stems from the same base. Full definition →

Middle English schrub ← Old English *sċrob
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shrub · noun, verb1

  1. Old English · inherited from*sċrob
  2. Middle English · inherited fromschrub
  3. English todayshrub

From Middle English schrub, schrob, (also unassibilated as scrub), from Old English *sċrob (in placenames) and sċrybb (“a shrub; shrubbery; underbrush”); akin to Norwegian skrubbe (“the dwarf cornel tree”). Doublet of scrub.

shrub · noun, verb2

  1. Arabic · derived fromشِرَاب“a drink, beverage”
  2. English todayshrub

From Arabic شِرَاب (širāb, “a drink, beverage”), شَرِبَ (šariba, “to drink”), akin to syrup, sherbet, and sorbet.

shrub · verb, noun3

Of unknown origin. First attested in the 2000s. Chiefly used in respect to English or Swahili pronounced in a manner characteristic of another Kenyan language.

Shrub · proper noun4

A play on his surname Bush, a shrub being a smaller bush, thus indicating that he is the junior Bush in relation to his father George H. W. Bush. Popularized by American newspaper columnist Molly Ivins (1944–2007), who co-wrote Shrub: The Short But Happy Political Life of George W. Bush (2000) with Lou Dubose.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.