inula

Forms

inula f (genitive inulae); first declension^[1] Medieval Latin also writes enula.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἑλένιον (helénion, “elecampane”), adapted to Latin.^[3][4][2] Köbler names as possible sources of the Greek word Ἑλένη (Helénē), the name Helen, or ἕλος (hélos, “marsh, meadow”).^[5] Wiktionary instead derives the Latin word from ἰνάω (ináō, “to purify”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Lucretius on, though in his line it is a reading restored by editors; it is also in the Moretum, where “mallows and elecampane were green” (malvaeque inulaeque virebant), and in Horace's Satires.^[6][4]

Semantic evolution

Columella gives directions for growing it, to be planted three feet apart, and calls it “bitter” (tristes inulae);^[6] Pliny the Elder also discusses it.^[7][4] Inula rustica was comfrey.^[3]

In British medieval Latin it also named the spring onion and dock, and it was glossed with English and Anglo-Norman plant names.^[2]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – A restored reading in Lucretius has it.^[6][5]
• 2nd half of the 1st century BC – The Moretum names it among garden plants.^[6][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace mentions it in his Satires.^[7][4][5]
• 1st century AD – Columella describes its cultivation.^[6][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder discusses it.^[7][4][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Elecampane, Inula helenium.^[3][7]
2. inula rustica: comfrey.^[3]
3. (Medieval Latin) The spring onion; also dock.^[2]

Word family

• inulīnus

Usage notes

Conte records a separate inula meaning a young hind, in Arnobius.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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
3. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier