absinthium

Forms

absinthium n (genitive absinthiī or absinthī); second declension^[1] The OLD files it under apsinthium.^[2] The TLL finds the spelling with ⟨ps⟩ much rarer than ⟨bs⟩, chiefly in Plautus, Cato and Pliny.^[3] Varro has apsenthium, and Nonius cites a masculine absinthius from him.^[2][4][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀψίνθιον (apsínthion, “wormwood”).^[2][1][6][7] Köbler calls the further origin of the Greek word unclear.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its earliest quotation in the OLD is from Plautus, who speaks of a land ubi apsinthium fit ac cunīla gallīnācea, “where wormwood and hen's marjoram grow”;^[2] Cato uses it soon after.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

It is the plant wormwood, especially the kind from Pontus, and an infusion or tincture made from it, which Lucretius, Celsus and Pliny the Elder mention.^[2][5] Lucretius speaks of the taetra absinthī nātūra, “the foul nature of wormwood”.^[2] Pliny the Elder names several kinds, the Santonic after a people of Gaul, the Pontic after Pontus, and a sea wormwood.^[2] Quintilian used it figuratively, fearing that his book might seem to have too little honey and too much wormwood, and so it became the image of something bitter but wholesome.^[2][4] Medieval writers in Britain, from Aldhelm on, used it of the plant, glossed wermod, and of bitterness and grief.^[8] It is continued by Italian assenzio,^[5] and English took absinthe for the liqueur from French in 1842.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus mentions it.^[2][3]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it in his work on farming.^[2][4]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it.^[2][7]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of the plant and of its infusion.^[2][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder describes its kinds.^[2]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it figuratively.^[2][4]
• 796 – Alcuin uses it of bitter reproof.^[8]
• 1842 – English borrows absinthe from French.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. Wormwood, Artemisia absinthium; also other species of the genus.^[2][4][1]
2. An infusion or tincture of wormwood.^[2][5]
3. (figuratively) Something bitter but wholesome;^[4][2][8] (Medieval Latin) bitterness, grief.^[4][2][8]

Related words

• English absinthe

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b c d 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
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com