iuniperus

Pronunciation

• Classical: [juːˈnɪ.pɛ.rʊs]^[1]
• Ecclesiastical: [juˈniː.pe.rus]^[1]

Forms

iūniperus f (genitive iūniperī); second declension^[1] Pliny the Elder writes iūnipirus.^[2][3] An adjective iūniperus “of juniper wood” is used of stakes by the land surveyors.^[4][5]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2][6][7] It is often connected with iūncus (“rush, reed”),^[1][8][7] but Etymonline notes phonetic difficulties, and Köbler calls the second part unexplained.^[7][8] Pokorny sets it, after Walde and Hofmann, beside the root of ⟨iūncus⟩ and of Old Norse einir (“juniper”), whose meaning, if it goes back to *jainia-, would show the shift from “rush” to “juniper” to be old.^[9] Watkins, as Etymonline reports, reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *yoini-paros (“bearing juniper berries”), from *yoi-ni- (“juniper berry”), perhaps itself not Indo-European, and *-paro (“producing”).^[7] Wiktionary reports Brüch's view that the form with ⟨-per-⟩ is a hypercorrect adaptation by Sabine speakers of a word taken from Umbrian, where Latin would have had ⟨*iūniber⟩.^[1]

Ancient writers explained it in their own way: Verrius Flaccus, quoted in the commentary on Virgil, took it for a “young pear”, ⟨iuvenis pirus⟩,^[6] and Isidore derived it from Greek πῦρ (pûr, “fire”), because the tree tapers like a flame or keeps its fire long.^[10][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Cato,^[8][6] who tells the farmer to pound juniper berries in a mortar.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it is the juniper tree, its wood and its berry, in Cato, Varro, Virgil and Pliny the Elder.^[2][3][6] Pliny writes it ⟨iūnipirus⟩ throughout,^[3] and the Appendix Probi recommends ⟨iunipirus⟩ against ⟨iuniperus⟩.^[11][6] The TLL also records the spellings ⟨zin-⟩, ⟨gin-⟩ and ⟨gen-⟩, which the Romance forms continue, such as Italian ginepro.^[6][1]

In the Vulgate it renders the Hebrew name of a white-flowered shrub,^[7] a passage of the third book of Kings that medieval writers recall;^[12] they medieval British writers still repeated Isidore's story that its ashes keep a fire alive for a whole year.^[12] English ⟨juniper⟩ (late 14th century) comes from it, as do Old French ⟨genevre⟩ and, through Old French, Middle Dutch ⟨genever⟩.^[7]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato prescribes pounded juniper berries.^[2][8]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil names the juniper in the Eclogues.^[3][8]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder writes iūnipirus.^[3][8]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore derives the name from the Greek word for fire.^[10][8]
• late 14th century – English juniper is recorded.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. The juniper tree; its wood.^[2][3][13]
2. A juniper berry.^[2]

Related words

• iuncus
• English juniper

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
9. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
10. ^ a b Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
11. ^ Appendix Probi, a late antique list of correct and censured Latin word forms ("calida non calda"); ed. H. Keil, Grammatici Latini IV, Leipzig 1864, 197–199.
12. ^ a b 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
13. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson