ash [OE] The two meanings of ash, the powder and the tree, started out as two completely different words. In Old English æsce or æxe referred to the powder, and æsc referred to the tree. The origins of something turning to ashes in your mouth can be traced back to John de Mandeville’s Travels, a 14th-century work claiming to be an account of the author’s travels in the East, where there is a description of a legendary fruit known as the Dead Sea fruit, sometimes also called the apple of Sodom. Although the fruit was appetizing to look at, it dissolved into smoke and ashes as soon as anyone tried to eat it The name of the Ashes, the cricket competition played roughly every other year between England and Australia comes from a mock obituary notice published in the Sporting Times newspaper on 2 September 1882, after the Australians had sensationally beaten the English team at the Oval: ‘In Affectionate Remembrance of English Cricket Which Died at the Oval on 29th August, 1882. Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances. R.I.P. N.B.—The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.’ During the subsequent 1882–3 Test series in Australia the captain of the English team declared that his mission was to recover the Ashes for England. During the tour a group of women presented him with a wooden urn containing the ashes of a bail or stump, which has since been kept at Lord’s Cricket Ground.