basaltes

Forms

basaltēs m (genitive basaltis); third declension^[1] Later dictionaries also give the genitive basaltae.^[2]

Etymology

It arose in the manuscripts of Pliny the Elder as a corrupt spelling of basanītēs, the name of a hard stone used as a touchstone:^[3][4][5] the manuscripts read ⟨basalten⟩ where ⟨basaniten⟩ was meant.^[4][2] That word is borrowed from Ancient Greek βασανίτης (basanítēs), from βάσανος (básanos, “touchstone”).^[4] Lewis & Short label it an African word.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the manuscripts of Pliny the Elder's Natural History it names a stone found in Ethiopia, of the colour and hardness of iron.^[2][1]

Semantic evolution

Isidore of Seville took the word over from Pliny for a dark, very hard kind of marble.^[1][6] Through the misread form it passed into the modern languages as the name of the volcanic rock: German Basalt comes from it,^[3] and English basalt is recorded from about 1600.^[4]

Timeline

• 23/24–79 AD – The manuscripts of Pliny the Elder have it for an Ethiopian stone.^[2][3]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville describes it as a dark marble.^[1][3]
• c. 1600 – English takes basalt from it.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A dark, very hard stone from Ethiopia, of the colour of iron; a kind of marble.^[1][2]
2. (New Latin) Basalt.^[3][4]

Related words

• basanītēs
• English basalt

Usage notes

The TLL does not treat it as a word of its own but sends the reader to basanītēs.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
2. ^ a b c d e Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).