BEAM (from the O. Eng. beam, cf. Ger. Baum, a

See also:

• TREE (0. Eng. treo, treow, cf. Dan. tree, Swed. Odd, tree, trd, timber; allied forms are found in Russ. drevo, Gr. opus, oak, and 36pv, spear, Welsh derw, Irish darog, oak, and Skr. dare, wood)
• TREE, SIR HERBERT BEERBOHM (1853- )

tree, to which sense may be referred the use of " beam " as meaning the

See also:

• ROOD (O.E. rod, a stick, another form of " rod, O.E. rodd, possibly cognate with Lat. rudis, a staff)

rood or crucifix, and the survival in certain names of trees, as

See also:

• HORN
• HORN (Lat. cornu; corresponding terms being Fr. cor, trompe; Ger. Horn; Ital. corno)
• HORN (a common Teutonic word, cognate with Lat. cornu; cf. Gr. Kipas)
• HORN, ARVID BERNHARD, COUNT (1664-1742)
• HORN, PHILIP DE MONTMORENCY, COUNT

horn-beam)  , a solid piece of timber, as a beam of a house, of a plough, a loom, or a balance . In the last case, from meaning simply the cross-bar of the balance, " beam " has come to be used of the whole, as in the expression " the king's beam," or " common beam," which refers to the old English standard balance for wholesale goods, for several hundred years in the custody of the Grocers' Company, London . As a nautical term, " beam " was transferred from the main cross-timbers to the side of the ship; thus " on the weather-beam " means " to windward," and a ship is said to be " wide in the beam " when she is wide horizon-tally . The phrase " to be on one's beam-ends," denoting a position of extreme peril or helplessness, is borrowed from the position of a ship which has heeled over so far as to stand on the ends of her horizontal beams, The meaning of " beam" for shafts or rays of light comes apparently from the use of the word to translate the Latin columna lucis, a pillar of light .