Etymologically
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alnus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈaɫ.nʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈal.nus][1]

Forms

alnus f or m (genitive alnī); second declension[1] It is usually feminine, sometimes masculine.[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *alsno- (“alder”).[3][1] De Vaan, following Derksen, takes it to be a non-Indo-European word borrowed separately into Italic, Balto-Slavic and Germanic, as the varying vowels and suffixes there suggest;[3] Wiktionary instead reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *h₂élsnos.[1] Cognate with Lithuanian al̃ksnis (“alder”), Old Norse ǫlr (“alder”), Old English alor (“alder”) and Old High German elira (“alder”).[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Cicero,[3] who has “in the shade of those alders”, in illis alnorum umbraculis.[2][4] Köbler dates it from Catullus.[5]

Semantic evolution

It is the alder, which grows in moist places;[4] Pliny the Elder discusses the tree and its uses in medicine.[6][4] In poetry it is anything made of alderwood:[2][4] a plank of a ship or bridge in Lucan, and especially a boat, since alder was much used in shipbuilding;[4][2] Virgil says that rivers then first felt hollowed alders.[4][2] In Virgil's sixth eclogue the sisters of Phaethon are changed into alders.[4]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of alders' shade.[2][3][5]
  • 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus.[4][5]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil, of boats of alderwood.[4][5]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder, of the tree in medicine.[6][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The alder.[2][4][1]
  2. (poetic) Something made of alderwood: a plank;[2] a boat, ship.[2][4][1]

Word family

  • alneus
  • English alder

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften