Etymologically
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bulbus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈbʊɫ.bʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈbul.bus][1]

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
  • 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