Etymologically
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frondosus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [frɔnˈdoː.sʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [fronˈdɔː.s̬us][1]

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]

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