Comments on: Trees Don't Molt, Do They?

Question: Trees Don't Molt, Do They?

shew — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 20:17:25 -0800

Is there a verb in the English language that describes the process of leaves changing color, withering and falling?

Sentence I want to use:

"Every fall I worry about my elm trees taking so long to finish [VERB_I_CANT_THINK_OF]ing."

Words I've considered but reject because I don't feel they describe the entire process (I'm open to arguments):

Turn
Fall
Change

By: These Birds of a Feather

These Birds of a Feather — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 20:22:42 -0800

Technically when leaves change color it's because the chlorophyll that normally makes a leaf green is degrading, but degrading is kind of a lousy verb to use in this context. What about "transitioning", "transforming", or "phasing"?

By: Sara C.

Sara C. — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 20:23:13 -0800

Turning works. Also changing.

Falling would refer to the part where the leaves actually fall off the tree.

Dying probably works, but is sort of blunt.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 20:23:52 -0800

senescence is the word describing the process but it's tough to turn it into a verb. senescing is technically a word but I don't know if people would know it. Maybe? This page has other big words describing the process.

By: Monsieur Caution

Monsieur Caution — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 20:26:48 -0800

Technically, abscissing, abscising, or abscissioning.
Poetically, autumning.

By: Etrigan

Etrigan — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 20:27:04 -0800

I think "turning" gets the point across and would be understood by all but the most pedantic to mean the entire process from green to ground.

By: windykites

windykites — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 20:39:42 -0800

I thought "autumning", but then thought I was being silly. Also, dying, sleeping, hibernating. Whithering. Shedding. Changing.Turning. Dropping. They all seem appropriate, though some aren't technically correct.

By: Scientist

Scientist — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 21:44:29 -0800

Another technical term for this process (well for a slightly different subset of this process) is senescing which is more about leaves turning colors (red/yellow/brown) than abscising, which is more about leaves actually dropping off.

I would just say "every fall I worry about my elm trees taking so long to finish dropping their leaves," though. Botanists say that sort of thing all the time, even in the company of other botanists.

By: Monsieur Caution

Monsieur Caution — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 00:24:31 -0800

Yeah, if this is a recommended usage question, it's leaves that turn, drop, change, or senesce in the fall. People do say trees senesce in this context but with the added sense of being dormant throughout winter. A tree does finish turning colors, abscising its leaves, or dropping its leaves in the fall.

But I'm afraid I took this as an Oulipian puzzle where it had to be a single word, a verb with no object, that remained in bounds semantically even if some liberties with transitivity and grammatical conversion were necessary to get there. That's not exactly the beaten path, I guess, but I figure this ain't Yahoo Answers.

By: guy72277

guy72277 — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 01:00:49 -0800

"every fall I worry about my elm trees taking so long to finish defoliating"

or

- "to finish pre-hibernating"
- "to finish their predictive dormancy"
I guess you could say "to finish exfoliating" (although this has"skin-care" feel to it)
- "to finish their autumnal excretion". Not beautiful, but I have always thought of this process as one of the characteristics of life, excretion. That's how trees rid themselves of waste products.
- If you have hibernation (winter) and vernalization (spring), you could also have autumnising (fall)

By: sianifach

sianifach — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 01:08:21 -0800

When my daughter was three she told me that the leaves had become tired. You're welcome to use it!

By: Jehan

Jehan — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 07:02:25 -0800

Shedding is the right word here. It not only covers the deed of falling, but also imparts the feeling of a whole process which the tree "does".

By: verstegan

verstegan — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 14:53:35 -0800

Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?