gramineus

Forms

grāmineus (feminine grāminea, neuter grāmineum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin grāmen (“grass”) + -eus.^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces grāmen to Proto-Italic *grā(s)men- and Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰrh₁-(s-)mn- (“grass”), cognate with Old High German gras (“grass”) and Old English grōwan (“to grow”); since the word is found only in Latin and Germanic, he thinks a substrate origin possible.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Cicero on,^[3] who in the Verrines uses it of spears of bamboo, a kind of reed.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

The TLL notes that hexameter poets are fond of it.^[3] It means covered with grass, as Virgil's grassy plain, Ovid's meadow and Statius' grassy bank,^[2] and made of grass or turf, as Virgil's turf altars and Lucan's hearths.^[2] The corōna grāminea was the siege crown of grass: in Livy the legions place one on Decius, and Pliny the Elder and Gellius describe it.^[2][5] Grammarians distinguished it from grāminōsus.^[3] The TLL gives it as the source of Italian gramigna.^[3] English gramineous was borrowed in the 1650s, and botany took from it the family name Gramineae.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of bamboo spears.^[5][6][8]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil, of a grassy plain and turf altars.^[2][8]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of the grass crown.^[2][8]
• 1650s – English gramineous.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Covered with grass, grassy.^[2][5][1]
2. Made of grass or turf;^[2][5][6] corōna grāminea, the grass crown given for raising a siege.^[2][5][6]
3. Of bamboo or reed.^[5][6]

Related words

• grāmen
• English gramineous

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 d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de