Etymologically
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faba

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈfa.ba][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈfaː.ba][1]

Forms

faba f (genitive fabae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *fafā- (“bean”),[2][1] the same word as Faliscan haba (“bean”), recorded by the grammarian Velius Longus.[2][3] De Vaan finds that no Proto-Indo-European word can be reconstructed: since the Italic, Slavic and Germanic words are alike in form and meaning, they are probably independent borrowings of a European substrate word of the form ⟨*bab-⟩.[2][1] Cognate with Old Prussian babo (“bean”), Old Norse baun (“bean”), Old High German bōna (“bean”) and Old English bean (“bean”); Ancient Greek φακός (phakós, “lentil”) is farther removed.[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus.[2][4] Ennius has cranes creeping through the bean field.[3]

Semantic evolution

It is the bean plant and its seed, the broad or horse bean;[3][5] Cato and Varro deal with it as a crop.[3][5] Ovid mentions the seven black beans of a rite.[3] With epithets it names other plants: faba Aegyptia, the Egyptian bean or sacred lotus, as in Celsus, and faba Graeca.[3] It also means a small bean-shaped object, a bead or pellet, as the glass bead in Petronius.[3][1] English fava (1896) came from it through Italian.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.[2][4]
  • 204–169 BC – Ennius of cranes in the bean field.[3][4]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato the Elder of beans as a crop.[5][4]
  • before 66 AD – Petronius of a glass bead.[3][4]
  • 1896 – English fava through Italian.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The bean plant; a bean, the broad bean.[3][5][1]
  2. With epithets, other plants: faba Aegyptia, the Egyptian bean.[3]
  3. A bean-shaped object, a bead, pellet.[3][1]

Word family

  • fabāceus
  • fabāginus
  • fabālis
  • fabārius
  • fabātus
  • fabulus
  • fabālia
  • fabācia
  • fabātārium
  • English bean

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com