noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
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"(all obsolete or archaic)"
"Miſtletoe! why I know what that is, as we garniſh our Houſe with it every Year, at Chriſtmas."
"I kissed him under the mistletoe."
Any of numerous hemiparasitic evergreen plants of the order Santalales with white berries that grow in the crowns of apple trees, oaks, and other trees, such as the European mistletoe (Viscum album) and American mistletoe or eastern mistletoe (Phoradendron leucarpum).
Common synonyms include: custom, decorative spray, false mistletoe, hemiparasite, loranthus europaeus, mistletoe decoration.
I kissed him under the mistletoe.
Pronounced /ˈmɪs(ə)ltəʊ/.
From Middle English mistelto, mistilto (“European mistletoe”), from Old English misteltān (“mistletoe”), from mistel (“mistletoe; basil; birdlime”) + tān (“sprig, shoot, twig”), possibly as a calque of Old Norse mistilteinn; equivalent to mistle + tan (“twig”). This was mistaken for the plural of tā (“toe”). Cognate with Danish mistelten (“mistletoe”), Norwegian misteltein (“mistletoe”), Icelandic mistilteinn (“mistletoe”). Compare also the simplex form West Frisian mistel (“mistletoe”), Dutch mistel (“mistletoe”), German Mistel (“mistletoe”), Swedish mistel (“mistletoe”).