napus

Forms

nāpus m (genitive nāpī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek νᾶπυ (nâpu, “mustard”),^[2][1][3] perhaps with some influence of σίναπι (sínapi), as the TLL suggests.^[4] Although the Greek word means mustard, the Latin one names a plant of the cabbage family.^[4] Köbler calls the further origin unclear.^[3] Isidore of Seville derived the name from the plant's likeness to the rāpa (“turnip”).^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Celsus, who counts rapa and napi among the more nourishing vegetables.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It named the navew, a kind of turnip;^[2][6] Columella and Pliny the Elder give advice on sowing it, and Scribonius Largus has a wild variety, napi silvatici, which the OLD leaves unidentified.^[2] Wiktionary also gives the sense rapeseed.^[1]

DÉRom reconstructs Proto-Romance */ˈnap-u/ from Romanian nap, Old French nef, Catalan nap, Spanish and Portuguese nabo; in the west it took over the sense “turnip” from the rival type */ˈrap-u/, whose continuants there took other meanings.^[7]

Timeline

• 14–37 AD – Celsus lists it among nourishing vegetables.^[2][3]
• 1st century AD – Columella writes on growing it.^[2][8][3]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder records when it should be sown.^[2][3]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial has it as a heading in his epigrams.^[6][3]
• end of 4th–beginning of 5th century AD – Palladius mentions it.^[8][3]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville explains its name.^[4][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A turnip, the navew (Brassica rapa).^[2][6][1]
2. Rapeseed (Brassica napus).^[1]

Word family

• nāpīna

Related words

• nāpy
• rapum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
8. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn