ligneus

Forms

ligneus (feminine lignea, neuter ligneum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin lignum (“wood”) + -eus.^[2][1] De Vaan traces lignum to Proto-Italic *legno- and Proto-Indo-European *leǵ(ʰ)-no-: either from the root “to collect”, as wood gathered for the fire, or with Ritter from the root “to lie”, as stray wood, both being equally possible.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[3] who has “the wooden horse the Achaeans sent”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means made of wood, as Cicero's little wooden bridge, Caesar's wooden towers and Tibullus' wooden god.^[4] It also means woody in texture, as Pliny the Elder's walnuts with woody shells, and perhaps of people tough or stringy.^[2] Church Latin glosses it “wooden”.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of the wooden horse.^[2][3][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a wooden bridge.^[4][6]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of wooden towers.^[4][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of woody shells.^[2][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Made of wood, wooden.^[2][4][5][1]
2. Woody in texture; of people, perhaps tough.^[2][1]

Word family

• ligneolus

Related words

• lignārius
• lignātiō
• lignātor
• lignor
• lignum

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 de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de