frondesco

Forms

frondēscō (present infinitive frondēscere, perfect active fronduī); third conjugation, no passive, no supine stem^[1]

Etymology

It is an inchoative verb formed from Latin frondeō (“to have leaves”) + -scō.^[2][1] Frondeō comes from frōns¹ (“foliage, leaves”),^[3][4] whose origin is uncertain: Walde and Hofmann hesitantly connected Germanic words for “brim, bud”, while Ernout and Meillet consider the etymology unsure, and de Vaan considers Solmsen's comparison with Russian and Greek words for grass and herbs less likely because it needs an extra suffix.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Ennius,^[3] in a fragment of his plays quoted by Cicero that names the sky brightening and the trees coming into leaf (arbores frondescere).^[2][5][4]

Semantic evolution

It always meant to put out leaves or shoots: Lucretius has the tops of branches coming into leaf, Cicero trees and vines leafing in spring warmth.^[2][5] Virgil uses it of a twig that puts forth leaves of the same metal, and Ovid of a spear that suddenly sprouts leaves when Romulus sees it.^[2][5] The TLL also records the spellings frund- in a gloss and -isc- in Ennodius.^[4]

Ecclesiastical Latin used it in the sense “to blossom, become leafy”.^[6] Its descendants include Romanian înfrunzi, Aromanian nfrãndzãscu and Portuguese frondescer.^[1]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it of trees coming into leaf.^[2][7]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of the tops of branches.^[2][7]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a metal twig putting forth leaves.^[2][7]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a spear that sprouts leaves.^[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To put forth foliage, become leafy, shoot.^[2][5]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To blossom.^[6]

Word family

• effrondesco
• refrondesco

Related words

• frondeo
• frondosus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de