olivum

Forms

olīvum n (genitive olīvī); second declension^[1][2] An older spelling olīvom is also found.^[2]

Etymology

The OLD takes it as borrowed from Ancient Greek ἔλαιον (élaion, “olive oil”), adapted from an older form with ⟨ϝ⟩; it compares olīva “olive” and oleum “oil”.^[1] Köbler derives it from ⟨olīva⟩.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus,^[3] who advises buying oil on credit and selling it for cash.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is olive oil, a poetic word and one of post-classical prose beside the ordinary oleum: Lucretius, Virgil, Ovid and Horace use it, Horace of fish drenched with oil, and the jurist Gaius of oil made from one's own olives.^[2][1] Because wrestlers were anointed with oil, Horace uses it of the wrestling ground.^[2] It is also an ointment, as Catullus' bed fragrant with Syrian oil.^[2] Church Latin glosses it olive oil.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of buying oil.^[2][3]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius.^[2]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus of scented oil.^[2][3]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of the wrestling ground.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Olive oil, oil.^[1][2][4]
2. (figurative) The wrestling ground.^[2]
3. An ointment, unguent.^[2]

Related words

• olīva
• oleum

References

1. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson