lilium

Forms

līlium n (genitive līliī or līlī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

Wiktionary takes it as borrowed from Ancient Greek λείριον (leírion, “lily”).^[1] De Vaan and the OLD think rather that the Latin and the Greek word were both borrowed from a non-Indo-European language of the eastern Mediterranean, and compare a Coptic word for "lily".^[2][3][4] The TLL finds it hard to decide whether lilium came from the Greek word by assimilation of /r/ to /l/ or whether both come from a common source.^[5] Varro already derived it from the Greek, and Isidore from lac (“milk”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Varro, who writes about sowing lilies and saffron.^[2][4][3]

Semantic evolution

It is the lily: Pliny the Elder ranks it next to the rose, and Virgil and Propertius describe white and shining lilies.^[6] Caesar reports that soldiers called a camouflaged pit with stakes a "lily".^[3] Gregory the Great uses it, and in Medieval Latin it also names a necklace and a lily-shaped ornament on buildings.^[4][7]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro of sowing lilies.^[3][2][4]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of the soldiers' name for a trap.^[3][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder ranks the lily next to the rose.^[6][4]
• Middle Ages – a necklace; a lily-shaped ornament.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A lily.^[3][6][8][1]
2. (military slang) A booby-trap, a camouflaged pit filled with stakes.^[3]
3. (Medieval Latin) A necklace; a lily-shaped ornament on buildings.^[7]

Word family

• līliāceus
• līliētum
• līlinus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson