Etymologically
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hortus

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈhɔr.tʊs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈɔr.tus][1]

Forms

hortus m (genitive hortī); second declension[1] Inscriptions and late texts write ortus, and medieval Latin has a neuter hortum and a fourth-declension hortus.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *χorto-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰortos (“enclosure”), a verbal adjective “enclosed” to a root *ǵʰer- “to enclose, grasp”.[5][1][6][7] De Vaan reconstructs two Indo-European nouns of the same meaning, *ǵʰ(o)r-to- and *ǵʰor-dʰo-, “enclosure, house”, which were contaminated in the daughter languages.[5] Cognate with Oscan húrz (“enclosure”), Old Irish gort (“field, standing crop”), Middle Welsh garth (“pen, fold”) and Ancient Greek χόρτος (khórtos, “enclosed place, feeding place”), and more loosely with the Germanic words Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌳𐍃 (gards, “house”), Old Norse garðr (“fence, yard”), Old English geard and Old High German garto (“garden”), with Lithuanian gar̃das (“pen”), Old Church Slavonic градъ (gradŭ, “town, garden”) and Sanskrit गृह (gr̥há-, “house”).[5][1][2] The relation to cohors is discussed under that word.[5] Isidore of Seville explained it as the place where something always grows up (oritur).[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is attested from the Twelve Tables,[5][6] where, as Pliny the Elder and Festus report, it meant a country house, the later villa.[8][9] Plautus uses it of a garden one digs or slips through.[8]

Semantic evolution

Its ordinary sense was a fruit or vegetable garden, and Cato and Horace use it also for the garden's produce, vegetables.[8][10] Pliny describes the movable frames, “hanging gardens” on wheels, in which Tiberius' cucumbers were grown, and Columella calls a plot of a vineyard a hortus.[8] The plural meant pleasure grounds or a park, such as the horti of Caesar, Maecenas and Sallust at Rome, and the garden in which Epicurus taught stood for his school.[8][9] The Priapea use it obscenely.[8]

Medieval Latin used it for a small rural holding with a house and kitchen garden, and for a game park or deer enclosure, and hortus curialis was a court of justice.[11][3][6] It survives as Italian orto and Old French ort, and French hortillon and hortillonnages name the market gardens of Amiens.[1] Old English ortgeard combines it with the native word.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 450 BC – The Twelve Tables use it in the sense “country house”.[5][8][6]
  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a garden.[8][6]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of garden produce.[10][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero speaks of the gardens of Epicurus and of pleasure gardens at Rome.[8][6]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder describes gardens on wheels and explains the sense in the Twelve Tables.[8][6]
  • 1158–1160 – Rahewin has a medieval sense.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A garden, especially a fruit or vegetable garden; garden produce.[8][9][10]
  2. A movable frame for growing plants; a plot of a vineyard.[8]
  3. (usually plural) Pleasure grounds, a park.[8][9]
  4. The garden of Epicurus; his school.[8][10]
  5. (Old Latin) A country house.[8][9]
  6. (Medieval Latin) A small holding with house and garden; a game park, a deer enclosure.[11][3][6]

Word family

  • hortēnsis
  • hortensius
  • hortuālis
  • hortulus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f 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 c d e f g h i j k Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b c d Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  11. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill