buxus

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈbʊk.sʊs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈbuk.sus]^[1]

Forms

buxus f (genitive buxī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek πύξος (púxos, “box tree”).^[2][3][4] Wiktionary doubts that Greek was the source, since the tree grew in Italy and is not native to Greece, and suggests both words may come from a substrate language of Italy.^[1] A neuter form buxum is also found.^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Ennius onwards.^[6] Ennius has “cypresses stand with straight leaves, and box with its bitter wood”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It meant the box tree, as Ovid's “box ever green”, and boxwood, noted for its pale colour, as Virgil's ivory set in box.^[3][7] It also meant things made of boxwood: a spinning top in Virgil and Persius, a writing tablet, and a flute.^[3][5]

Isidore says it is a Greek word partly corrupted by the Latins, and that its light wood suited writing.^[8] English box, the tree, comes from it in Old English.^[9]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it of the box tree.^[3][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of boxwood and of a top.^[3][6]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid calls it ever green.^[3][6]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore calls it a Greek word.^[8][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The box tree.^[3][1]
2. Boxwood.^[3][5]
3. A thing made of boxwood: a top, a writing tablet, a flute.^[3][1]

Word family

• buxans
• buxētum
• buxeus
• buxiārius
• buxifer
• buxōsus
• buxum

Related words

• buxis
• pyxis
• English box

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
9. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com