arbustum

Forms

arbustum n (genitive arbustī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is the neuter of arbustus (“planted with trees”), used as a noun.^[2][3][1] Lewis and Short take it as standing for ⟨*arbosētum⟩, from arbor (“tree”) in its old form ⟨arbōs⟩, as virgultum (“thicket”) stands beside ⟨virgulētum⟩; the later arborētum (“plantation of trees”) is formed the same way.^[4][1] De Vaan tentatively connects ⟨arbor⟩ with arduus (“high”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₃rdʰ-ōs (“height, uprightness”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Ennius' Annals have “the whole wood rang with the roar of the leafy forest”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a wood, copse or plantation, as in Ennius, and above all a plantation of trees on which vines were trained, as in Cato.^[2][4][1] In the plural it is trees, bushes or shrubs in general, as Cicero's monster that overturned all the trees in its path;^[2][4][1] Lewis and Short call this sense chiefly poetic.^[2][4][1] Servius comments on it in Virgil, and the glosses explain it as places where trees grow and as fruitful vineyards.^[3]

Church Latin glosses it “orchard”.^[6]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius of a wood ringing with noise.^[2][7]
• 234–149 BC – Cato of vineyards trained on trees.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of trees overturned.^[2][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A wood, copse, plantation.^[2][1]
2. A plantation of trees on which vines are trained; an orchard.^[2][4][1][6]
3. (plural) Trees, bushes, shrubs.^[2][4]

Word family

• arbustīvus
• arbustō

Related words

• arbor
• arborārius
• arborātor
• arborēscō
• arborētum
• arboreus
• arbuscula
• arbustus
• virgultum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ 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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de