Etymologically
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ornus

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈɔr.nʊs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈɔr.nus][1]

Forms

ornus f (genitive ornī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is from ⟨*osenos⟩ or ⟨*osinos⟩, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃es- (“ash tree”).[2][3][1][4] Cognate with Russian ясень (jasenʹ, “ash tree”), Welsh onnen (“ash tree”), and with another suffix Old Norse askr and Old English æsc (“ash tree”), whence English ash.[2][1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is Virgil, whom he dates 70–19 BC, and Virgil calls them sterilēs ornī.[4][6]

Semantic evolution

It meant a kind of ash with showy blossoms, the flowering or manna ash, Fraxinus ornus, as in Virgil, Horace, Columella and Pliny the Elder.[2][6][7] In Juvenal it meant a trunk of this tree used as a missile, and in Silius and Ausonius an ashwood lance.[2][6][7]

It survives in Italian orno and Romanian urm, and was borrowed into French as orne.[1]

Timeline

  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of the flowering ash.[6][4]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace uses it.[6][4]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder describes it.[6][4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The flowering ash, Fraxinus ornus.[2]
  2. An ashwood missile; a lance.[2][7]

Word family

  • orneus
  • fraxinus
  • English ash

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.