edibilis

Forms

edibilis (neuter edibile); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1] Hungarian charters also spell it edilis.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin edō¹ (“to eat”) + -bilis.^[1][3][4] De Vaan traces edō¹ to Proto-Italic *ed- and Proto-Indo-European *h₁éd-mi (“to eat”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is in Cassiodorus (c. 485–c. 580),^[6][7] who in the Variae he describes a wine so thick that one might call it a fleshy liquid or an edible drink (edibilem potionem).^[3]

Semantic evolution

It became common only in medieval Latin: British writers have it of herbs that cannot be eaten,^[8] Hungarian charters use the neuter plural as a noun for food and provisions,^[2] and a Polish charter of 1495 has it of beaver pelts with their edible tails.^[9]

English took edible from it in the 1590s,^[10] and Italian edibile is also a borrowing of it.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 485–c. 580 AD – Cassiodorus calls a thick wine an “edible drink”.^[3][7]
• 1330/1364 – A Hungarian charter uses the neuter plural for provisions for men and horses.^[2]
• 1495 – A Polish charter has it of the tails of beaver pelts.^[9]
• 1590s – English borrows it as edible.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Edible, eatable.^[6][4][8]
2. (Medieval Latin, neuter plural as a noun) Food, provisions.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Bartal, Antal, et al. (1987–), Lexicon Latinitatis Medii Aevi Hungariae, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; online ed. ELTE
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b 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
9. ^ a b Lexicon mediae et infimae Latinitatis Polonorum (1953–), Kraków: Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN; electronic ed. elexicon.scriptores.pl
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com