balanus

Forms

balanus f (genitive balanī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek βάλανος (bálanos, “acorn”).^[2][3][1][4] Köbler connects the Greek word with the Indo-European root *gʷel- (“acorn”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first use is in Plautus' Rudens, where fishermen catch oysters and balani, a kind of shellfish.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Its basic sense was an acorn, which Pliny the Elder uses.^[2][3] From that it came to name fruits of a similar shape and the trees that bear them: a large chestnut (balanus Sardianus), the date, and the ben-nut of an Egyptian tree, from which a balsam was pressed, as in Horace.^[2][3][5] In medicine it meant a suppository, from its shape.^[2] It is usually feminine, but Pliny and others also use it as a masculine.^[3][6]

In Medieval Latin it kept the sense of acorn, and glossaries explain the compound myrobalanus through it.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for a kind of shellfish.^[2][4]
• 65–8 BC – Horace mentions the ben-nut balsam for the hair.^[2][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for the acorn, the date, the chestnut and a suppository.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. An acorn.^[2][3]
2. The ben-nut, the fruit of an Egyptian tree, from which a balsam was made.^[2]
3. (balanus Sardianus) The chestnut.^[2]
4. A date.^[2]
5. (medicine) A suppository.^[2]
6. A kind of shellfish.^[2]

Word family

• balanātus
• balaninus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften