Anyone know why it's promoted here as 'The Witch Elm' but on Amazon UK it appears as 'The Wych Elm'? Clearly the same book.

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7 years ago
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Judy Lindow The adjective (and noun) wych is little used these days. The root meaning is 'having flexible branches', from the Common Germanic wik- 'to bend': wych is used of trees, particularly the wych-elm, sometimes (erroneously) written 'witch-elm'. This is the species of elm-tree whose botanic name is ulmus montana or ulmus glabra, and sometimes ulmus glabra montana. Its wood was formerly used to make bows, according to OED.

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Jane I also wondered about these different spellings of the same word. The title here (in US) is The Witch Elm, but throughout the book it is referred to as the Wych Elm. Perhaps there was in intent to make the prospective reader think the book was about supernatural things. It seems to mainly be native to Scotland and isn't grown in the US.

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Sophie I was wondering about this, too! Does that mean "The Wych Elm" is the UK edition and "The Witch Elm" the American one? And are wych elms spelled "witch elms" in America? If not... I'm confused about the alternative spelling.

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Melinda UK authors tend to use different covers or even titles for US and UK releases (see Sophie Hannah for an example). It appears the common spelling of this type of tree in Ireland (where French lives) is wych. That spelling was used multiple times throughout the book as well (I received an advanced copy from Edelweiss).

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