lupine

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin lupīnus (“of a wolf”),^[2][3][4][5] or, as some dictionaries have it, came through French lupin (“wolf-like”).^[6][7][8] The Latin adjective is formed from lupus (“wolf”) and the suffix -īnus,^[3][9] and the American Heritage Dictionary takes it back to Proto-Indo-European *wl̥kʷo-,^[7] the root also of wolf.^[7][10] Used as a noun, the same Latin adjective gave the name of the plant lupin.^[7][3][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Having the nature or qualities of a wolf: 1660, in J. Gauden's funeral sermon for Brownrig.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the 1650s,^[6] and Dictionary.com to 1650–60.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Besides the plain sense of the wolf or of something like it, dictionaries record a figurative use for savage or greedy behaviour, as in "ravenous" and "predatory".^[11][12][13] Random House and the Macquarie also give a zoological sense, related to the wolf.^[12][13]

Timeline

• 1660 – having the nature or qualities of a wolf.^[2][3] Etymonline dates the word to the 1650s.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of, relating to, or resembling a wolf; wolfish.^[3][14][2]
2. Related to the wolf.^[12][13]
3. Savage, ravenous or rapacious.^[11][12][13]

Noun

1. (chiefly US) The plant lupin, or its seed.^[15][7][3]

Related words

• wolf
• lupin

Usage notes

The adjective is /ˈluːpaɪn/,^[16] while the plant, however it is spelled, is /ˈluːpɪn/.^[1] Chambers marks lupine for the plant as chiefly American,^[15] where the American dictionaries give it as the main spelling.^[3][7]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
12. ^ a b c d Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
13. ^ a b c d The Macquarie Dictionary (2013), 6th ed., Sydney: Macquarie Dictionary Publishers
14. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers
16. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press