alium

Forms

ālium n (genitive āliī or ālī); second declension^[1] Also spelled allium and āleum.^[2][3][4] The spelling allium appears in inscriptions from the 1st century AD on;^[5] Lewis and Short, who enter it under allium, call ālium the better spelling.^[6]

Etymology

It has no accepted etymology.^[5][2] De Vaan speculates that it might come from āla (“wing”), the garlic bulb being divided into “wings”, and compares Old High German klobalouh (“garlic”) and Old Saxon kluflōk (“garlic”), in which the first part comes from the verb “to cleave”.^[5][1] It has also been compared with a Greek gloss ἄλλην (állēn, “vegetables”) said to be used among the Italians, which may come from another Italic language.^[5] Lewis and Short and Georges compare Ancient Greek ἀλλᾶς (allâs, “sausage”),^[6][3] and Köbler traces it to Proto-Indo-European *ālu- (“bitter plant”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[5] who uses it of garlic: oboluistī alium, “you smell of garlic”, in the Mostellaria.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Garlic is often named as the food of country people and of the poorer classes, such as rowers.^[3] Cato gives it in his recipes and Columella and Pliny the Elder in their works on plants,^[7][2] and Horace mentions it in the Epodes.^[7][6] Varro uses it figuratively of plain-living forefathers whose words smelled of garlic but who were of excellent spirit.^[6] With adjectives it names other kinds of Allium: ālium Pūnicum in Columella, and the wild ālium silvestre that Pliny calls ursīnum, bear's garlic.^[2]

The word stayed in use for garlic in medieval Latin, glossed in Old English as garleac.^[8][4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus mentions the smell of garlic.^[6][4]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it in his work on farming.^[7][4]
• 65–8 BC – Horace mentions it in the Epodes.^[7][4]
• 1st century AD – Columella names ālium Pūnicum.^[2][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder describes wild garlic.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Garlic, a garlic plant.^[2][6]
2. (with adjectives) Other plants of the genus Allium: ālium silvestre, wild garlic.^[2]

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 Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
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