labrusca

Forms

lā̆brūsca f (genitive lā̆brūscae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.^[2][3] Wiktionary sets out two uncertain proposals that depend on the length of the first vowel: with a short ⟨a⟩, a compound of labrum¹ (“lip”) and ūrō (“to burn”) with a suffix ⟨-ca⟩, from the sour taste of the grapes; with a long ⟨ā⟩, a link with lābor (“to glide, slip”), which leaves the second part unexplained.^[1] It also points to laburnum and ruscum (“butcher's broom”) as words that may have influenced its form.^[1] Walde rejected Wharton's link with the same noun in the sense “edge” (the vine that grows at the edges of vineyards), since the vowel lengths differ.^[4]

Ancient grammarians derived it from the ⟨labra⟩ or edges of the land, where the wild vine grows, as Isidore does;^[5] others connected it with the lips, from its sour taste.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Virgil's Eclogues, where the wild vine has scattered its sparse clusters over a cave.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Columella and Pliny the Elder also use it as an adjective with vitis and ūva, for the wild vine and its grapes.^[2][7] Pliny says that an artificial wine was made from it, that its leaves turn blood-red before they fall, and that a cultivated vine can degenerate into it.^[6] The glosses render it with Greek ἀγριάμπελος (agriámpelos, “wild vine”) and explain it as a vine that grows in hedges.^[8]

Its Romance descendants include Italian lambrusca and lambrusco, French lambruche, Catalan llambrusca and Romanian lăuruscă.^[1][6]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil names the wild vine in the Eclogues.^[2][3]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses uva labrusca for unripe wild grapes picked from the brambles.^[2][3]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder describes the plant and the wine made from it.^[6][3]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore explains the name from the edges of the land.^[5][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The wild vine.^[2][7][9]

Adjective

1. (with vitis or ūva) Of the wild vine: uva labrusca, a wild grape.^[2][7]

Word family

• labruscum

Usage notes

The first syllable is long in Virgil,^[2] and Lewis & Short write it lābrusca.^[7] The fruit is called labruscum.^[7]

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 c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ Walde, Alois (1906), Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ a b Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
6. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Goetz, Georg (1888–1923), Corpus glossariorum Latinorum, Leipzig: Teubner; vols. VI–VII Thesaurus glossarum emendatarum, digital ed. CGLO, Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.