ladanum

Forms

lādanum n (genitive lādanī); second declension^[1] Also spelled lēdanum.^[2][3][4] The TLL also records a masculine lādanus and the spelling laudanum.^[5] Medieval Latin also has labdanum.^[6]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek λάδανον (ládanon), also λήδανον (lḗdanon), the name of a resin from the shrub called cistus.^[1][7][2] Beekes takes the Greek word to be originally a Semitic loan, comparing Assyrian ladunu;^[7] Herodotus already says that the Arabians call it ládanon.^[7] He treats Greek λῆδον (lêdon), the name of the shrub, and Latin lēda and lāda as back-formations from it,^[7] whereas the OED takes the shrub's name, which it glosses “mastic”, as the source of the resin's.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Celsus prescribes it in medicine, for instance to promote urine.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Pliny the Elder says that Arabia prides itself on ladanum, describes how goats wipe it off the shrubs, and adds that more recent writers place the true ladanum on Cyprus;^[5] he lists many medical uses, against corns and fistulas and in fumigations.^[5] Later medical writers keep it among their remedies, and Marcellus counts it among the spices of the East.^[5] A glossary explains it as honey on an elm leaf.^[5][9]

Medieval Latin used it for the same gum resin,^[10] which went into perfumes and medicines.^[11] The spelling with ⟨au⟩, which the TLL already finds in late medical texts, may have come from a link with laudāre “to praise”,^[5] and the name laudanum that Paracelsus gave to his medicine may come from it.^[8][12]

Timeline

• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it in prescriptions.^[5][13]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder describes how it is gathered and its uses.^[5][13]
• mid 4th century AD – Avienus writes that fleeces in Arabia and Syria exude it.^[5][13]
• late 14th century – Middle English uses ladanum for plant resins.^[12]
• 1551 – The English word ladanum appears in William Turner's herbal.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. ladanum, a gum resin exuded by shrubs of the genus Cistus.^[1][2][10]
2. A sweet substance on elm leaves, explained in a glossary as honey.^[5]

Related words

• laudanum
• English ladanum

References

1. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ Latinitatis medii aevi lexicon Bohemorum / Slovník středověké latiny v českých zemích (1977–), Prague: Academia; electronic version, Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences
7. ^ a b c d Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Goetz, Georg (1888–1923), Corpus glossariorum Latinorum, Leipzig: Teubner; vols. VI–VII Thesaurus glossarum emendatarum, digital ed. CGLO, Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
10. ^ 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
11. ^ Lexicon mediae et infimae Latinitatis Polonorum (1953–), Kraków: Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN; electronic ed. elexicon.scriptores.pl
12. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
13. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de