SG Heritage Dictionary

Myrtle [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

A plant of the genus Myrtus, of several species. The common myrtle rises with a shrubby upright stem, eight or ten feet high. Its branches form a close full head, closely garnished with oval lanceolate leaves. It has numerous small, pale flowers from the axillas, singly on each footstalk.

Myrtle [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

A species of the genus Myrtus, especially Myrtus communis. The common myrtle has a shrubby, upright stem, eight or ten feet high. Its branches form a close, full head, thickly covered with ovate or lanceolate evergreen leaves. It has solitary axillary white or rosy flowers, followed by black several-seeded berries. The ancients considered it sacred to Venus. The flowers, leaves, and berries are used variously in perfumery and as a condiment, and the beautifully mottled wood is used in turning.

Myrtle Encyclopedia Britannica

MYRTLE. The μύρτος of the Greeks, the myrtus of the Romans, and the Myrtle, Myrtus communis, of botanists, as now found growing wild in many parts of the Mediterranean region, doubtless all belong to one and the same species. It is a low-growing evergreen shrub, with opposite leaves, varying in dimensions, but always small, simple, dark-green, thick in texture, and studded with numerous receptacles for oil. When the leaf is held up to the light it appears as if perforated with pin-holes owing to the translucency of these oil-cysts. The fragrance of the plant depends upon the presence of this oil. Another peculiarity of the myrtle is the existence of a prominent vein running round the leaf within the margin. The flowers are borne on short stalks in the axils of the leaves. The flower-stalk is dilated at its upper end into a globose or ovoid receptacle enclosing the 2- to 4-partitioned ovary. From its margin proceed the five sepals, and within them the five rounded, spoonshaped, spreading, white petals. The stamens spring from the receptacle within the petals and are extremely numerous, each consisting of a slender white filament and a small yellow two-lobed anther. The style surmounting the ovary is slender, terminating in a small button-like stigma. The fruit is a purplish berry, consisting of the receptacle and the ovary blended into one succulent investment enclosing very numerous minute seeds destitute of perisperm. The embryo-plant within the seed is usually curved....

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 17, p. 122
[437 words — estimated reading time: 3 minutes]

Myrtle Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

הדס, Neh. viii, 15; Isaiah xli, 19; lv, 13; Zech. i, 8–10; a shrub, sometimes growing to a small tree, very common in Judea. It has a hard woody root that sends forth a great number of small flexible branches, furnished with leaves like those of box, but much less, and more pointed: they are soft to the touch, shining, smooth, of a beautiful green, and have a sweet smell. The flowers grow among the leaves, and consist of five white petals disposed in the form of a rose: they have an agreeable perfume, and ornamental appearance. Savary, describing a scene at the end of the forest of Platanea, says, Myrtles, intermixed with laurel roses, grow in the valleys to the height of ten feet. Their snow-white flowers, bordered with a purple edging, appear to peculiar advantage under the verdant foliage. Each myrtle is loaded with them, and they emit perfumes more exquisite than those of the rose itself. They enchant every one, and the soul is filled with the softest sensations.” The myrtle is mentioned in Scripture among lofty trees, not as comparing with them in size, but as contributing with them to the beauty and richness of the scenery. Thus Isaiah, xii, 19, intending to describe a scene of varied excellence: I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, and the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree;” that is, I will adorn the dreary and barren waste with trees famed for their stature and the grandeur of their appearance, the beauty of their form, and also the fragrance of their odour. The apocryphal Baruch, v, 8, speaking of the return from Babylon, expresses the protection afforded by God to the people by the same image: Even the woods and every sweet-smelling tree shall overshadow Israel by the commandment of God.”

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary
[305 words — estimated reading time: 2 minutes]

Love Roget’s Thesaurus §897

N. love, fondness, liking, inclination, regard, dilection|, admiration, fancy, affection, sympathy, fellow-feeling, tenderness, heart, brotherly love, benevolence, attachment, yearning, ἔρως, tender passion, amour, gyneolatry, gallantry, passion, flame, devotion, fervor, enthusiasm, transport of love, rapture, enchantment, infatuation, adoration, idolatry, cupid, venus, myrtle, true lover's knot, love token, love suit, love affair, love tale, love story, the, old story, plighted love, courtship, amourette, free love, maternal love, στοργή, parental love, young love, puppy love, attractiveness, popularity, favorite, lover, suitor, follower, admirer, adorer, wooer, amoret, beau, sweetheart, inamorato, swain, young man, flame, love, truelove, leman, lothario, gallant, paramour, amoroso, cavaliere servente, captive, cicisbeo, caro sposo, inamorata, ladylove, idol, darling, duck, dulcinea, angel, goddess, cara sposa, betrothed, affianced, fiancee, flirt, coquette, amorette, pair of turtledoves, abode of love, agapemone

V. love, like, affect, fancy, care for, take an interest in, be partial to, sympathize with, affection, be in love &c. with adj, have a love, for, entertain a love, for, harbor cherish a love, for, regard, revere, take to, bear love to, be wedded to, set one's affections on, make much of, feast one's eyes on, hold dear, prize, hug, cling to, cherish, pet, burn, adore, idolize, love to distraction, aimer eperdument, dote on, dote upon, take a fancy to, look sweet upon, become enamored, fall in love with, lose one's heart, desire, excite love, win the heart, gain the heart, win the affections, gain the affections, secure the love, engage the affections, take the fancy of have a place in the heart, wind round the heart, attract, attach, endear, charm, fascinate, captivate, bewitch, seduce, enamor, enrapture, turn the head, get into favor, ingratiate oneself, insinuate oneself, worm oneself, propitiate, curry favor with, pay one's court to, faire l'aimable, set one's cap at, flirt

Adj. loving, fond of, taken with, struck with, smitten, bitten, attached to, wedded to, enamored, charmed, in love, love-sick, over head and ears in love, head over heels in love, affectionate, tender, sweet upon, sympathetic, loving, amorous, amatory, fond, erotic, uxorious, ardent, passionate, rapturous, devoted, motherly, loved, beloved well beloved, dearly beloved, dear, precious, darling, pet, little, favorite, popular, congenial, after one's mind, after one's taste, after one's fancy, after one's own heart, to one's mind, to one's taste, to one's fancy, to one's own heart, in one's good graces, dear as the apple of one's eye, nearest to one's heart, lovable, adorable, lovely, sweet, attractive, seductive, winning, charming, engaging, interesting, enchanting, captivating, fascinating, bewitching, amiable, like an angel

Phr. amantes amentes, credula res amor est, militat omnis amasius, love conquers all, omnia vincit amor, si vis amari ama, "the sweetest joy, the wildest woe"

King James Bible KJV Bible

Berean Standard Bible BSB Bible

6 KJV and 6 BSB verses contain “Myrtle”

Nehemiah 8:15

And that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying, Go forth unto the mount, and fetch olive branches, and pine branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written.

So they proclaimed this message and spread it throughout their towns and in Jerusalem, saying, “Go out to the hill country and bring back branches of olive, wild olive, myrtle, palm, and other leafy trees, to make booths, as it is written.”

Isaiah 41:19

I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together:

I will plant cedars in the wilderness, acacias, myrtles, and olive trees. I will set cypresses in the desert, elms and boxwood together,

Isaiah 55:13

Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

Instead of the thornbush, a cypress will grow, and instead of the brier, a myrtle will spring up; they will make a name for the LORD, an everlasting sign, never to be destroyed.”

Zechariah 1:8

I saw by night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the bottom; and behind him were there red horses, speckled, and white.

I looked out into the night and saw a man riding on a red horse. He was standing among the myrtle trees in the hollow, and behind him were red, sorrel, and white horses.

Zechariah 1:10

And the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, These are they whom the LORD hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth.

Then the man standing among the myrtle trees explained, “They are the ones the LORD has sent to patrol the earth.”

Zechariah 1:11

And they answered the angel of the LORD that stood among the myrtle trees, and said, We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest.

And the riders answered the angel of the LORD who was standing among the myrtle trees, “We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth is at rest and tranquil.”