Brewer's: Sycamore

and Sycomore. Sycamore is the plane-tree of the maple family (Acer pseudo-platanus, or greater maple). The sycomore is the Egyptian fig-tree (Greek, sukomoros, sukos, a fig). The tree into which Zacchæus climbed (Luke xix. 4) to see Christ pass is wrongly called a sycamore or maple, as it was the sycomore or wild fig. The French have translated the word correctly - “[Il] montait sur un sycomore pour le voir.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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