frondosus

Forms

frondōsus (feminine frondōsa, neuter frondōsum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] Old Latin also spelled it frundōsus,^[2] and Ennius has the genitive frondōsāī.^[3] The comparative frondōsior is in Silius Italicus.^[3]

Etymology

It is from Latin frōns¹ (“foliage”) + -ōsus.^[4][1][3] The origin of frōns¹ is unclear: de Vaan doubts a comparison with Ancient Greek θρόνα (thróna, “herbs, flowers”), which needs an extra suffix, and allows that the Greek and Latin words could come from the same Mediterranean substrate word.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Ennius,^[5] in whom a whole grove resounds with the roar of the leafy wood, omne sonabat arbustum fremitu silvai frondosai.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means abounding in foliage, leafy.^[4] Varro has leafy mountains, Virgil a leafy hilltop and a vine, and Ovid a leafy branch;^[2] Virgil also speaks of leafy summer.^[2] In Church Latin it is simply leafy.^[6]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius, of a leafy wood.^[2][5][7]
• 116–27 BC – Varro, of leafy mountains.^[2][7]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil, of a leafy hilltop and vine.^[2][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Abounding in foliage, leafy.^[4][2][1][6]

Related words

• frōns¹
• frondeō
• frondēscō

References

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