Etymologically
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absinthium

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [apˈsɪn.tʰi.ũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [abˈsin.ti.um][1]

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]

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