myrice

Forms

myrīcē f (genitive myrīcēs); first declension^[1] Also myrīca, genitive myrīcae, first declension.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek μυρίκη (muríkē, “tamarisk”).^[4][2][5][1] Köbler, following Frisk, takes the Greek word to be probably of Semitic origin.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Georges records it first in Virgil, who uses the plural myricae in the Eclogues;^[3] Köbler's first source is Pliny the Elder.^[5] It means the tamarisk.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

It is the tamarisk, a shrub growing by water, which Georges identifies as Tamarix gallica.^[3][4] In Virgil it became a figure of the impossible: pinguia corticibus sudent electra myricae, “let tamarisks sweat rich amber from their bark”,^[2][3] and Ovid likewise says that whoever hopes for the same may as well hope for apples from tamarisks.^[3] Pliny the Elder describes the shrub,^[2][3] and the Vulgate uses the word in Jeremiah.^[3]

In medieval Latin it also meant heath or moorland.^[6]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses the tamarisk as a figure of the impossible.^[2][3][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid speaks of apples from tamarisks.^[3][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder describes the shrub.^[2][3][5]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it in Jeremiah.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The tamarisk, or a bush of it.^[4][2][3]
2. (Medieval Latin) Heath, moor.^[6]

Usage notes

Myrīcē is also the name of a nymph from whom, in Silius Italicus, Hannibal's wife Imilce was descended.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill