bulbus

Forms

bulbus m (genitive bulbī); second declension^[1] A Greek form bulbos also occurs.^[2] Manuscripts write it vulvus, volvus or bulvus.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek βολβός (bolbós, “bulbous plant”).^[4][3][1] Isidore explained the form ⟨volvus⟩ as named from its rolling, round root.^[5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL and Köbler record it from Plautus on;^[3][6] the earliest quotation in the OLD is Cato's bulbōs Megaricōs, Megarian onions.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It means a bulb or bulbous root, as of the narcissus in Ovid,^[4][3] and an edible bulb, especially the onion, of which the Megarian kind was best known.^[2][4] Pliny the Elder uses it very often,^[3] and the agricultural writers use it also of the swollen roots of the reed and the crocus.^[3] Ecclesiastical Latin kept the sense “onion”.^[7] English took bulb in the 1560s, through French, in the sense “onion”.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[3][6]
• 234–149 BC – Cato names Megarian bulbs.^[4][6]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid has narcissus bulbs.^[4][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it often.^[3][6]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore explains it.^[5][6]
• 1560s – English borrows bulb through French.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bulb, bulbous root.^[4][2]
2. An edible bulb, especially an onion.^[4][2][7]

Word family

• bulbāceus
• bulbōsus
• bulbulus

Related words

• English bulb

Usage notes

Bulbus was also a Roman family name of the Atilii;^[3][2] Cicero makes a pun on it.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911)., p. 17.9.88
6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com