Etymologically
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nardus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈnar.dʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈnar.dus][1]

Forms

nardus f (genitive nardī); second declension[1] A neuter nardum is used beside it.[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek νάρδος (nárdos).[2][4][1] Köbler takes the Greek word to be a loan from a Semitic language and compares Sanskrit नलद (nálada-, “nard”);[5] Etymonline traces it ultimately to Sanskrit.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it from Plautus.[5] The OLD's earliest quotations are Lucretius, of the flower of nard that breathes nectar to the nostrils, and Varro's Menippean Satires, of fops glossy with nard oil.[2]

Semantic evolution

It names the aromatic plant nard,[2][3] and by transfer the costly oil or balsam made from it: Horace asks why we do not drink anointed with Assyrian nard, and Tibullus has temples dripping with it.[2][3] Pliny the Elder mentions a Gallic nard.[3][2] In Church Latin nardum spicatum is spikenard.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, the first author Köbler records.[5]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius, of the flower of nard.[2][5]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace, of Assyrian nard used as an ointment.[2][5]
  • c. 1200 – English takes nard from Old French and directly from Latin.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Nard, an aromatic plant.[2][3][1]
  2. Nard oil, an aromatic balsam made from it.[2][3][1][7]
  • English nard
  • English spikenard

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson