Persicus

Forms

Persicus (feminine Persica, neuter Persicum, adverb Persicē); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek Περσικός (Persikós, “Persian”), from Πέρσης (Pérsēs, “a Persian”) and the adjective suffix -ικός (-ikós).^[1][2] In Latin it goes with Persae (“the Persians”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it in the Amphitruo in the name of a harbour, portus Persicus, apparently on the Euboean strait.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

From Catullus on it means Persian in general, of customs, dress and kingdoms,^[3] and the Persian Gulf was sinus Persicus or mare Persicum.^[3] In the Mithraic mysteries the fifth grade of initiation was called gradus Persicus.^[3]

It named plants and fruits from the East: malum Persicum was the peach and arbor Persica the peach tree,^[3] which became the nouns persicum and persica;^[3] the feminine persicus alone also meant the peach tree in Columella.^[3] Pliny the Elder uses it of a fine kind of walnut,^[3] and Medieval Latin had a noun persicus for a dark blue cloth.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus names a portus Persicus.^[3][2]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus speaks of Persian soothsaying.^[3][2]
• 65–8 BC – Horace writes of Persian trappings.^[3][2]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses malum Persicum for the peach.^[3][2]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses the feminine noun persicus for the peach tree.^[3][2]
• 43/44 AD – Mela names the Persian Gulf sinus Persicus.^[3][2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Persian, of Persia or the Persians.^[3][4]
2. sinus Persicus, mare Persicum: the Persian Gulf.^[3][4]
3. gradus Persicus: the fifth grade of initiation in the cult of Mithras.^[3]
4. In names of plants: malum Persicum, a peach;^[3] arbor Persica, a peach tree; also a kind of walnut and a kind of cress.^[3]

Noun

1. (feminine) A peach tree.^[3][2]

Related words

• persica
• persicum

Usage notes

A separate adjective Persicus was formed from Persēs, the name of Perseus, the last king of Macedon: Cicero speaks of the war against him as bellum Persicum.^[3][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press