Etymologically
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myrice

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [myˈriː.keː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [miˈriː.t͡ʃe][1]

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