citrus

Forms

citrus f (genitive citrī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Ancient Greek κέδρος (kédros, “juniper berry, cedar cone”), with the Latin change of /dr/ to /tr/.^[2][3][4][5] De Vaan points out that the first vowels do not match, so there may have been an Etruscan intermediary, as Wiktionary also assumes;^[2][1] alternatively, both words may have been borrowed from a third, perhaps Mediterranean, language.^[2] Greek κίτριον (kítrion, “citron tree”) was probably borrowed from the Latin word, and the Greek word for the cedar was borrowed again later as cedrus.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Varro (116–27 BC),^[2][6] who writes in his Menippean satires that Libyssa citrus fasciis cingit fores “Libyan citrus binds the doors with bands”, of the tree's wood.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word named an African tree whose fragrant wood was made into furniture and fetched very high prices;^[5][3] Pliny speaks of the craze for tables of it.^[4] The wood itself was usually called citrum.^[2][5]

It also named the citron tree, whose fruit and leaves were laid among clothes against moths and used as an antidote to poison.^[5][3] Servius reports that many identified the tree bearing the Median apple with the citrus, which Apuleius denied.^[4]

English took citrus in 1825 from the Modern Latin genus name;^[7] citron and citrine came earlier, through French.^[7]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro writes of Libyan citrus wood.^[4][2][6]
• 43/44 AD – Pomponius Mela lists it with the terebinth among the riches of pleasant woodlands.^[4][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder describes the tree, its costly wood and the fashion for citrus-wood tables.^[5][4][6]
• c. 400 AD – Servius reports the dispute over whether the Median apple tree is the citrus.^[4][6]
• 1825 – English takes citrus from the Modern Latin genus name.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. An African tree, Callitris quadrivalvis (Thuja articulata), with fragrant, highly prized wood.^[3][2][5]
2. The citron tree, Citrus medica.^[3][2][5]

Word family

• citrago
• citrārius
• cītrātus
• citrētum
• citreus
• citrōsus
• citrum
• citrifōrmis

Related words

• English citrus
• English citron

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com