cytisus
Pronunciation
Forms
cytisus m (genitive cytisī); second declension[1] Mostly feminine, sometimes masculine;[2][3][4] Varro and Columella also have a neuter cytisum.[2][3][4]
Etymology
It is borrowed from Ancient Greek κύτισος (kútisos).[2][3][1][4] Köbler, after Frisk, takes the Greek word to be probably a loanword itself.[5]
Earliest recorded meaning
Lewis and Short and the TLL cite it first in Varro's work on agriculture, in the neuter cytisum, then in Virgil's Eclogues;[3][4] Köbler dates it from Virgil.[5] It names a fodder plant, tree medick.[2]
Semantic evolution
It named a shrubby fodder plant much valued by the ancients, identified as the tree medick, Medicago arborea.[2][3] Pliny the Elder also uses it of the wood of this shrub, which he says comes close to ebony in its dark colour.[2] In Medieval Latin from Britain it is still the tree medick, glossed as a shrub.[6]
Timeline
- 116–27 BC – Varro has the neuter cytisum.[3][4][5]
- 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it in the Eclogues.[3][5]
- 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of the shrub's wood.[2][5]
Meanings
Noun
References
- ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
- ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
- ^ 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