citreus

Forms

citreus (feminine citrea, neuter citreum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] A spelling citrius occurs in Scribonius Largus.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin citrus + -eus.^[3][2][1] The base is probably from Ancient Greek κέδρος (kédros, “cedar”), through Etruscan,^[1][4] and the OLD compares that Greek word.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero,^[4] who in the Verrines speaks of a very large and very beautiful table of citrus wood (mēnsam citream) that was carried off.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Most uses are of the prized African citrus wood: Horace has a marble statue set up under a roof of citrus wood,^[5][2] Petronius a citrus table from Africa whose markings imitate gold,^[2] Persius couches of citrus wood,^[5] and Pliny the Elder an oil obtained from it.^[3] Scribonius Largus and Pliny also use it of the citron fruit (māla citrea), which, Pliny says, the Greeks named after Media,^[3][2] and Pliny uses the feminine citrea for the tree.^[5] Macrobius discusses the mālum citreum, quoting Oppius and Cloatius.^[2][5] The neuter citreum meant the citron, and in Palladius the citron tree.^[5][6]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a table of citrus wood.^[3][4]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of a roof of citrus wood.^[5][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of the citron fruit and of an oil from the wood.^[3][4]
• first half of the 5th century AD – Macrobius discusses the citron.^[2][4]
• end of the 4th or beginning of the 5th century AD – Palladius uses the neuter for the citron tree.^[6][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or growing on the citron tree.^[3][6]
2. Made of the wood of the African citrus tree (Callitris quadrivalvis), a costly wood for tables.^[3][5][6]
3. Obtained from citrus wood (of oil).^[3][5]

Noun

1. (neuter, citreum) The citron fruit; the citron tree.^[5][6]
2. (feminine, citrea) The citrus tree.^[5]

Related words

• citrus
• citrum

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier