Etymologically
Log in

herbosus

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 13:23. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [hɛrˈboː.sʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [erˈbɔː.s̬us][1]

Forms

herbōsus (feminine herbōsa, neuter herbōsum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin herba (“grass, herb”) + -ōsus.[2][1][3] De Vaan finds no viable origin for herba: the reconstruction ⟨*gʰer-dʰ-⟩ of Walde–Hofmann and Pokorny is impossible if the root of grāmen (“grass”) is ⟨*ǵʰrh₁-⟩.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cato uses it first,[5] in De agri cultura of places that will not be grassy and of the grassiest straw, to be given instead of hay.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It means covered with grass or plants, grassy: Horace has a grassy field, Tibullus the grassy Palatine, Propertius the grassy Apidanus, Virgil a grassy river and Ovid grassy pastures.[6] Ovid also uses it of a salad of herbs.[6] Seneca uses it of things like vegetation floating on water.[2] Later, in Sidonius, it is grass-green, of marble.[6] The TLL records the spellings erb- and herv-.[3]

Timeline

  • 234–149 BC – Cato of grassy places and straw.[2][5]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of a grassy river.[6]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace of a grassy field.[6]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of things like vegetation.[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Covered with grass or plants, grassy; full of herbs.[2][6][1]
  2. Like vegetation;[2][6][1] (Late Latin) grass-green.[2][6][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press