About the Yew1

[petegray]

>> 1. The very well known case of Lat. 'fagus' (Eng. beech and similar in other
>> Germanic, e.g. beuk in Du.) and Gr. 'phe:gss' (Dor. phagss) (Eng. oak)
>> proves that different trees can be meant by a name from the same IE source,
>> even when all the peoples involved were probably equally familiar with both
>> species. Can anybody suggest how this could happen?

It is worth acknowledging that it happens today.   When I first moved from
NZ to England, I had difficulties because no one in this country spoke
English quite the way I did.  Oh, the embarrassment of trying to ask for
things in shops when no one knows your word for the object, and you don't
know theirs!   This happens also with common plants, birds, trees and such.
Some are roughly the same, just enough to make you think they all might be,
but then whammy!   You realise that while you've been talking about one
thing, everyone else has been understanding something very different.

I am finally getting used to "slip roads" and "buns" (that was a very
interesting conversation!) but beech trees still remain a muddle in my head.

So the phenomenon is not just ancient.

Peter