cupressus

Forms

cupressus m or f (genitive cupressī or cupressūs); variously declined, second declension, fourth declension^[1] Ennius has a masculine accusative plural cupressōs.^[2] A fourth-declension genitive cupressūs is in Varro, Pliny the Elder and Apuleius, and an ablative cupressū in Catullus.^[3] Virgil also has the Greek form cyparissus, and Late Latin cypressus.^[2][3]

Etymology

The TLL, Wiktionary and Köbler take it as borrowed from Ancient Greek κυπάρισσος (kupárissos, “cypress”).^[4][1][5] The OLD regards it rather as a loanword from an unknown language, from which the Greek word also came;^[3] Latin borrowed the Greek form separately as cyparissus.^[3] Köbler too traces the Greek word to a language of the Mediterranean world.^[5] Isidore explains the name from the way the tree's crown rises to a point.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Ennius has it first, of tall cypresses standing with straight foliage.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

It is the cypress tree, and in poetry a spear of cypress wood.^[3] Vitruvius recommends cypress wood when fir is scarce, and Celsus lists cypress, apparently its oil, among remedies that disperse swellings.^[3] Lewis & Short note the masculine in Ennius and the frequent fourth-declension forms.^[2]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius of tall cypresses.^[3][5]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus has the ablative cupressū.^[3][5]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius of cypress wood.^[3][5]
• late 12th century – English cypress comes through Old French from Late Latin cypressus.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cypress tree; a spear of cypress wood.^[3][2][1]
2. Cypress wood.^[3]
3. Oil of cypress.^[3]

Word family

• cupressētum
• cupresseus
• cupressifer
• cupressinus

References

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