silver birch
- noun
:
abeto plateado
- The silver birch is known for its distinctive white bark and graceful drooping branches.
Examples
-
Farther out, the lake doubles the trees around its edge: pine, hemlock, and silver birch.
Fiction book (1994) -
Picking up her bark basket, she headed for the sound, fording a shallow stream to enter a fern-choked glade ringed by stands of slim silver birch.
Fiction book (2001) -
In the park, the silver birch trees provide a beautiful contrast against the dark green pines.
-
A silver birch stands majestically in the garden, its bark peeling delicately in the summer sun.
Synonyms
1
4.9
A tree with pale bark and thin hanging branches often found in Europe
A tree with silvery white peeling bark and drooping branches
A birch tree with white peeling bark and drooping branches
A tree with silvery white bark that peels in thin papery layers and drooping branches
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun phrase is a straightforward modifier + noun composition: 'silver' describes the colour/appearance and 'birch' names the tree, so the meaning of a birch with silvery bark is directly derivable from the parts. This adjective–noun pattern is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily understand the phrase.
Etymology
Silver birch comes from the tree's pale, peeling bark that looks like silver and from birch, the common word for this kind of tree. So the name gives a simple picture of the pale bark and drooping branches, which is why we use it to identify this tree.