(Vol. viii., p. 244.)
Whilst offering a solution to the Query of R. C. WARDE, as to the placing
yew-trees in churchyards, I am obliged to differ from him _toto coelo_, by
considering the derivation of the name of the plant itself, though I must
candidly confess that the solution of the Query and the derivation of the
word are my own.
_Yew_ is ancient British, and signifies _existent_ and enduring, having the
same root as _Jehovah_; and _yew_ is Welsh for _it is_, being one of the
forms of the third person present indicative of the auxiliary verb _bod_,
to be. Hence the yew-tree was planted in churchyards, not to indicate
_death_, despair, but _life_, hope and assurance. It is one of our few
evergreens, and is the most enduring of all, and clearly points out the
Christian's hope in the immortality of the soul: _Resurgam_.
Whilst on the word _yew_, I may perhaps observe that I am hardly inclined
now (though I once was so) to derive from it, as the author of the
_Etymological Compendium_ does, the name _yeoman_: I think that yeoman is
not _yew_-man, "a man using the yew-bow," but _yoke_-man, a man owning as
much land as a _yoke_ of oxen could plough in a certain time.