conifer

Forms

cōnifer (feminine cōnifera, neuter cōniferum); first/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin cōnus (“cone”) + -fer, “bearing cones”, from the noun for a cone and the root of ferō (“to bear”).^[2][3][4] cōnus is borrowed from Ancient Greek κῶνος (kônos).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Virgil uses it once in the Aeneid, of the cone-bearing cypresses (coniferae cyparissi).^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

Wiktionary marks it as a hapax, but the TLL and Conte also cite Nemesianus, who uses it of cypresses too.^[1][4][6] Servius and Isidore of Seville explain the epithet from the cone, the fruit of the cypress.^[4][5]

In Medieval Latin a 12th-century gloss uses it as a noun for a fruit-bearing tree,^[7] and a British Medieval Latin poem uses it for crested helmets.^[8] Italian conifero and German Konifere go back to it.^[6][7]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil, in the Aeneid, calls cypresses coniferae.^[5][4][7]
• second half of the 3rd century AD – Nemesianus uses it of cypresses.^[4][6][7]
• 12th century – A gloss uses it as a noun for a cone- or fruit-bearing tree.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Bearing cones, coniferous.^[2][5]
2. (Medieval Latin) Crested, of helmets.^[8]

Related words

• English conifer

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press