Grove Spelling Dictionary
two decisions at once

eleagnis: two changes at once

graft: letters 3, 8
Writtenelaeagnus

el-ee-AG-nus

The digraph has been reduced to a single e and the ending has been rewritten from -us to -is. Both are the sort of thing that happens when a name is heard rather than read, and together they take out the two features that mark the word as Latin. What is left looks like an English word and is not one.

Other spellings of elaeagnus

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