abies

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈa.bi.eːs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈaː.bi.es], [ab.jɛ.t-]^[1]

Forms

abiēs f (genitive abietis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is probably a borrowing from a pre-Indo-European Mediterranean language.^[2][1] It resembles Ancient Greek ἄβιν (ábin, “fir”), a form in Hesychius, from *abi-, which de Vaan thinks may not be Greek either.^[2][1] Its formation is like that of pariēs “wall” and ariēs “ram”.^[2] The OLD calls it doubtful, and Lewis and Short compared Ancient Greek ἀλδαίνω (aldaínō, “to make grow”).^[3][4] Isidore of Seville derived it from abīre, because it goes up higher than other trees.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus, who uses it of sealed writing tablets.^[2][3] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^[6]

Semantic evolution

It meant the silver fir, and its wood, from which Virgil's Greeks build the wooden horse.^[3] Things made of fir wood were called abiēs, a pair of writing tablets in Plautus, which Quintilian says prose would not accept, and in Virgil a ship and a spear.^[3][7] Pliny the Elder uses it of a seaweed.^[3] In dactylic verse its /i/ was consonantal, abjete.^[3][4]

In Medieval Latin glosses it was confused with the aspen.^[8] Its descendants include Italian abete, and English abietic is from it.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of writing tablets.^[3][6]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius describes a fir being felled.^[3][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil's Greeks build the horse of fir.^[3][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The silver fir.^[3]
2. Fir wood.^[3]
3. A thing made of fir: writing tablets; a ship; a spear.^[3][7]
4. A kind of seaweed.^[3]

Word family

• abiēgnus
• abietārius

Related words

• pīnus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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
5. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press