... We find in Plautus, alonim (gods), alonuth (goddesses).  Similarly, if I mistake not, ilu, were gods, and ilut, goddesses. (The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland, v.19, 1834)

    "I am Esmunazar, King of Sidon, son of Tabnith, King of Sidon, grandson of Esmunazar, King of Sidon; and my mother was Amashtoreth, priestess of our lady Ashtaroth, the queen, daughter of the King Esmunazar, of Sidon.  We built the temples of the Alonim [the great gods] at Sidon on the seashore, and all-powerful heaven has made Ashtaroth favourable to us." (Littell's Living Age, v. 108, 1871)

... This indefiniteness in the rendering of the various words for tree, their obvious connexion with the root אול, an the fact that the Phoenicians used the word alonim for "gods," all go to show that the Hebrews, in calling certain trees by those names that are so similar, did not intend to express any botanical distinction, but meant to indicate the holy character of those trees...(The Expository Times, Hastings, v.14, 1903)