conchis

Forms

conchis f (genitive conchis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

According to Wiktionary and Lewis & Short it is borrowed from Ancient Greek κόγχος (kónkhos);^[1][2] the TLL also derives it from Greek, and the OLD calls it perhaps Greek.^[3][4] In Greek it is a form of κόγχη (kónkhē, “mussel, cockle”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Martial is the first to name it, as a bean boiled in its pods and eaten by the poor.^[6][7][8]

Semantic evolution

In Martial and Juvenal it is a bean cooked with its pods, a cheap food,^[2][7][8] and Apicius also mentions it.^[2] The grammarian Priscian records the very old form cunchis, which later speakers rejected as rustic.^[3][7] Medieval glosses used it for a water plant, floating sweet-grass or lesser duckweed.^[9][6]

Timeline

• 40–102/103 AD – Martial mentions the bean boiled in its pods.^[6][7]
• c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal names it as poor man's food.^[2][7][6]
• 6th century AD – Priscian cites the old form cunchis.^[3][7][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A kind of bean, cooked in its pods.^[4][2]
2. (Medieval Latin) A water plant, floating sweet-grass or lesser duckweed.^[9]

Word family

• conchicla

Related words

• concha

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
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 d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften