Etymologically
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ervum

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈɛr.wũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈɛr.vum][1]

Forms

ervum n (genitive ervī); second declension[1] The archaic spelling is ervom,[2] and the spellings hervum, erbum and herbum also occur.[3][2]

Etymology

The OLD calls it a foreign loanword,[4] and de Vaan thinks it may come from a non-Indo-European substrate language: it clearly belongs with the Greek and Germanic words for pulses, but no common preform can be reconstructed, their formation differs, and they name a crop native to the region.[5] Wiktionary likewise speaks of a Mediterranean substrate.[1] Köbler, after Pokorny, sets up an Indo-European word for a pulse.[3]

Cognate with Ancient Greek ὄροβος (órobos), ἐρέβινθος (erébinthos, “chick-pea”), Old High German araweiz and Old Saxon erwit (“peas”), and perhaps Middle Irish orbaind (“grains”).[5][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler find it first in Plautus,[5][3] whose Mostellaria asks ervom daturin estis bubus quod feram?, “are you going to give me vetch to take to the oxen?”.[6]

Semantic evolution

It is a cultivated vetch, the bitter vetch Vicia ervilia, or its seed.[4][1] Cato and Columella treat it as fodder for oxen, and Cato has meal made from it;[6] Virgil has a bull “lean on rich vetch”, and Horace has tenue ervum, “meagre vetch”.[6][7] Celsus uses it in medicine.[6][2]

Medieval herbals and glossaries still name the plant;[8][9] it was confused with herba, and so also meant grass or pasture,[8] and in British sources a kind of couch grass.[9]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus has vetch for the oxen.[6][5][3]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato lists it among the crops and makes meal of it.[6][10][3]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil and Horace use it.[6][7][3]
  • 1st century AD – Columella treats it as fodder and medicine for oxen.[6][3]
  • Middle Ages – It also means grass or pasture.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The bitter vetch, Vicia ervilia, or its seed; other vetches.[4][7][1]
  2. (Medieval Latin) Grass, pasture;[8] couch grass.[9]

Word family

  • ervilia

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d 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 c d e f g h Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  7. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  9. ^ a b c 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
  10. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier