From: b.scott@csuohio.edu   
      
   On Sat, 27 Jun 2015 20:31:26 -0400, Michelle Bottorff   
    wrote   
   in in   
   rec.arts.sf.composition:   
      
   [...]   
      
   > If not from the woods but from the tree... which tree and   
   > in what way is someone "from/of" it?   
      
   You may already have seen Dirk’s post that essentially   
   answers this.  I’d forgotten that the Dutch word also means   
   a pole, shaft, etc., and in particular could refer to the   
   barrier placed across a turnpike at toll and customs   
   stations.  His ancesters were apparently customs officers.   
   I don’t know of an equivalent French surname: the   
   occupational term  seems not to be attested   
   before the 16th century, and even  is only a   
   mid-14th c. borrowing from Italian, so neither is likely to   
   have produced a surname.  (There is a surname , but   
   it apparently derives from the locative byname .)   
      
   French  would have been a byname for someone   
   who lived near an especially prominent tree; in some cases   
   the English surname  has an analogous origin,   
   elided from  'at the tree'.   
      
   Brian   
   --   
   It was the neap tide, when the baga venture out of their   
   holes to root for sandtatties.  The waves whispered   
   rhythmically over the packed sand: haggisss, haggisss,   
   haggisss.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)