cassia

Forms

cassia f (genitive cassiae); first declension^[1] The classical spelling is casia, which the metre confirms;^[2][3] cassia is very common in the manuscripts and in late writers.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek κασία (kasía),^[4][3][1] which Wiktionary derives from Biblical Hebrew קְצִיעָה (qəṣīʿā), from Aramaic.^[1] Köbler likewise calls the Greek word a loan from the East, comparing Hebrew and Assyrian.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus,^[5] in whom the scent of wine is praised: “you are saffron, you are cassia”.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

It is a tree with an aromatic bark like cinnamon, probably wild cinnamon,^[3][4] and its bark, used in perfumes and medicine.^[4] Pliny the Elder describes it, and has a nest built of twigs of cassia and frankincense;^[4][3] Celsus uses it in remedies.^[4][3] In Virgil it is also an aromatic shrub, perhaps mezereon or marjoram.^[4] Church Latin has it as cassia, wild cinnamon.^[6] Wiktionary gives Chinese cinnamon and the golden shower tree.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of a perfume.^[4][3][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil, of an aromatic shrub.^[4][5]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus, in remedies.^[3][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder, of the tree.^[4][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tree with aromatic bark, wild cinnamon; its bark, cassia.^[4][3][1]
2. An aromatic shrub, perhaps mezereon or marjoram.^[4]

Related words

• cinnamum

Usage notes

In the Vulgate, Cassia is the name of Job's second daughter, on which Gregory the Great comments.^[2]

References

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