"woody tissue in higher plants," 1875, from German Xylem, coined from Greek xylon "wood" (see xylo-).
Entries linking to xylem
xylo-
before vowels xyl-, word forming element meaning "wood," from Greek xylon "wood cut and ready for use, firewood, timber; piece of wood; stocks, a plank, beam, or bench," in New Testament, "the Cross," a word of uncertain origin. It seems to correspond with Lithuanian šulas "post, pole, stave," Russian šulo "garden-pole," Serbo-Croatian šulj "block," Old High German sul "style, pole," Gothic sauls "pillar," but the exact relationship is unclear, and Beekes asks, "Was the word taken from a non-IE substrate language?"
meristem n.
"growing cellular tissues of plants, actively dividing cell tissue," 1862, formed irregularly from Greek meristos "divided, divisible" (verbal adjective from merizein "to divide, distribute," from meros "a part, a share;" from PIE root *(s)mer- (2) "to get a share of something") + ending from xylem, etc. Related: Meristematic.