definition v1 of tree

The word tree is the English lexical item itself — a made sign, not the plant and not the category of plants: a phonological form (/triː/) and written form bound by convention to its senses, parameterized by spelling, pronunciation, part of speech, inflection (tree, trees), etymology (Old English trēow, from Proto-Germanic *trewam), and its sense inventory (the woody plant; the hierarchical data structure; the family tree). It persists through speech communities, dictionaries, taught literacy, and the texts that carry it — surviving every individual speaker, drifting as they use it. Distinguish three altitudes (Law 39a): this entry is the word as SUBJECT; the labels that name other concepts tree are the word as NAME; the gem of its senses is the word as PROJECTION. [formal: verbum arboris | substrate: behavior | horizon: as-long-as-us | explicit: yes | epoch: 0.10]