twissel
nounEtymology From Middle English twisel, twisil, from Old English *twisel (“forked, double”), from Old English twisla (“confluence, junction”), from Proto-Germanic *twisilą (“fork, bifurcation”), from Proto-Indo-European *dwis- (“twice, in two”). Cognate with German Zwiesel (“fork”).
1
Rare A double fruit or a pair of like things growing on a tree.
- 16thC, George Turberville, The Louer, in 1810, Samuel Johnson (series editor & biographies), Alexander Chalmers (additional biographies), The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper, Volume II, page 599, As from a tree we sundrie times espie / A twissell grow by Nature's subtile might / And beeing two, for cause they grow so nie / For one are tane, and so appeare in sight;
2
Rare That part of a tree where the branches separate from the trunk or bole; a fork.