ligneus
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Pronunciation
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
Word family
- ligneolus
Related words
- lignārius
- lignātiō
- lignātor
- lignor
- lignum
References
- ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
- ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de