aconitum

Forms

aconītum n (genitive aconītī); second declension^[1] It is also spelled aconīton, with the Greek accusative aconiton in Ovid; the poets use only the plural aconīta, except Ovid once.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀκόνιτον (akóniton, “wolfsbane”).^[2][5][1][3] Köbler calls the further origin of the Greek word unknown.^[6] The ancients explained it from a Greek word meaning “without dust”, hence “without a struggle”, invincible in its deadly effect;^[7] Etymonline reports that Beekes finds this hardly possible and proposes a substrate origin.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it first in Virgil,^[6] whose Georgics mention aconita among the herbs that do not deceive those who gather them.^[3][8]

Semantic evolution

It names a poisonous plant, the aconite, which the OLD calls unidentified and Georges identifies with several species of the genus Aconitum, especially monkshood.^[2][4] From the plant it came to mean the poison made from it, and in the poets any quick poison: Ovid has terrible stepmothers mixing lurida aconita, and Juvenal speaks of someone who gave aconite to three uncles.^[2][8][3] Ancient writers offered several explanations of the name: Ovid tells that it sprang from the foam of Cerberus and grows on hard rock, so that country people call it aconita;^[3] Pliny the Elder says it grows on bare rocks called aconae, nourished not even by dust, or that its force in killing is like the whetstone's on iron;^[3] Servius derives it from the Greek word for a whetstone.^[3] Pliny also mentions the harbour of Acone, dreaded for the aconite poison, and Isidore of Seville takes the name from Acone, a harbour of Bithynia so known for harmful herbs.^[3][2] English took the word from French in the 1570s as aconite.^[7]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil mentions aconita in the Georgics.^[3][6]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a poison and tells a story of its origin.^[2][3][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder describes the plant and the explanations of its name.^[3][6]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville takes the name from the harbour of Acone.^[3][6]
• 1570s – English borrows it, through French, as aconite.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A poisonous plant, aconite, monkshood, wolfsbane.^[2][8][4]
2. A poison made from this plant; in the poets, any strong poison.^[2][8][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press