What’s the basic Hebrew word for tree? עץ

.

Now, עץ

is tree as it appears in the Bible. In Mishnaic times, אילן

was the word of choice.

So when we talk about a family tree – a genealogy or a pedigree – the term in Hebrew is אילן יוחסין

.

For example:

באילן היוחסין שלנו אפשר לראות שמונה דורות אחורה.

On our family tree we can see eight generations back.

The word יוחסין

– genealogy or relations – ends with ין-

instead of ים-

, a plural ending found in Rabbinic Hebrew.