intibus

Forms

intibus m or f (genitive intibī); second declension^[1] Also neuter intubum, intibum or intybum, and masculine or feminine intubus or intybus.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2] The OLD compares Ancient Greek ἔντυβον (éntubon) and ἴντυβος (íntubos), but notes that the Greek words may themselves be borrowed from Latin.^[2] The TLL, following Spitaler, and Wiktionary take it to be borrowed from Classical Syriac ܗܶܕ݁ܒܳܐ (heddəḇā), a Semitic plant name with a nasalized form ⟨*hindab⟩;^[5][1] Wiktionary compares Arabic هَدَب (hadab, “twisted leaves or sprigs”).^[1] The TLL rejects a Greek origin.^[5]

Ancient grammarians had other ideas: Isidore of Seville called ⟨intubus⟩ a Greek name, wrongly according to the TLL.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The masculine intubus is first found in Lucilius, in the 2nd century BC, for the endive plant.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It named chicory and endive, both the wild plant and the cultivated one.^[2][4] Virgil speaks of endives “with bitter fibres”,^[2] the comic poet Pomponius has rustics eating bitter intubi,^[2] and Pliny the Elder notes that the wild kind is called cichorium in Egypt.^[2] Columella calls endives pleasing to a dull palate.^[2][3]

The word passed into Romance and, through a Medieval Latin or Romance form endivia and Old French endive, into English as endive.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses the masculine intubus.^[2][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil writes of bitter intiba in the Georgics.^[2][3]
• 1st century AD – Columella calls endives pleasing to a dull palate.^[2][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder distinguishes a wild kind called cichorium.^[2][6]
• late 14th century – English borrows endive, which goes back to this word.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. Endive or chicory, wild or cultivated.^[2][3][4]
2. intubum erraticum: wild chicory.^[2]

Related words

• cichorium
• English endive

Usage notes

The neuter intubum is the form under which the OLD lists it; the masculine is used by Lucilius, Pomponius and Celsus, the neuter by Virgil, Ovid and Columella.^[2]

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 j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com