willow, willow tree
“Le soleil traversait d'un rayon les petits globules bleus des ondes qui se succédaient en se crevant; les vieux saules ébranchés miraient dans l'eau leur écorce grise; au delà, tout alentour, la prairie semblait vide.” — The sun pierced with a ray the small blue bubbles of the waves that, breaking, followed each other; branchless old willows mirrored their grey backs in the water; beyond, all around, the meadows seemed empty.
Related: saule fragile, saule pleureur
From Middle French saule, from Old French saule (“willow”), from Old Low Frankish *salha (“willow”), from Proto-Germanic *salhaz, masculine variant of *salhō, *salhijǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *sh₂lk-, *sh₂lik- / Proto-Indo-European *salǝḱ-, *salǝk- (“willow”). Cognate with Old High German salaha (“willow”), Old English sealh (“willow”), Latin salix (“willow, willow branch”), Middle Irish sail (“willow”). More at sallow. Old French saule displaced Old French sauz (“willow”), from Latin salix.