brassica
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Pronunciation
Forms
brassica f (genitive brassicae); first declension[1] Some manuscripts of Varro have blassica.[2]
Etymology
The origin is unknown.[3][2][4][1] The TLL compares a gloss of Hesychius.[2] Wiktionary reports suggestions that it is a contraction of praesecō (“to cut off in front”).[1] Varro already explained it as ⟨praesica⟩, because it is cut off bit by bit from its stalk.[2]
Earliest recorded meaning
Köbler dates it from Plautus.[4] It means a cabbage.[3]
Semantic evolution
It is the cabbage in its several varieties, much prized by the ancients and often used in medicine, as Cato's long praise of the cabbage, and in Columella and Pliny the Elder.[5][3] Wiktionary notes that it covers cauliflower and other varieties of the same plant.[1]
Timeline
- c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.[4]
- 234–149 BC – Cato the Elder on the cabbage as food and medicine.[5][4]
- 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder on its varieties and medical uses.[5][4]
Meanings
Noun
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
- ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
- ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press