palma

Palma, palmae, f., first declension, and three meanings held together by one shape. The flat of the hand comes first. The tree is named for fronds that spread like fingers. And because a palm frond was the prize handed to the winner of a race or a fight, palma is the victory itself: palmam ferre, to carry off the prize.

Christian usage runs all three together without apology. Martyrs are painted holding the palm, Palm Sunday keeps the branches, and a medieval hymn will move from the tree to the trophy inside a line. Keep it apart from palmus, the masculine, which is a hand's breadth used as a unit of measurement. English palm, palmistry and palmer, the pilgrim who came back from Jerusalem carrying one, all descend from it.