Meaning

noun hard close-grained wood of any of various birch trees; used especially in furniture and interior finishes and plywood

noun any betulaceous tree or shrub of the genus Betula having a thin peeling bark

noun a switch consisting of a twig or a bundle of twigs from a birch tree; used to hit people as punishment

originPIE word *bʰerHǵós From Middle English birche, birk, from Old English birċe, bierċe, from Proto-West Germanic *birkijā, from Proto-Germanic *birkijǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerHǵos. Cognates Compare West Frisian bjirk, German Birke, variant of *berkō (compare Dutch berk, Danish birk, Swedish björk, Norwegian bjørk), Sanskrit भूर्ज (bhūrjá), Lithuanian béržas, Czech bříza, Ossetian бӕрз…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0