paliurus

Forms

paliūrus m (genitive paliūrī); second declension^[1] A Greek-style form paliuros is also found.^[2] Manuscripts of the Vulgate and later writers also spell it palliurus.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek παλίουρος (palíouros, “Christ's thorn”).^[2][1][4] Beekes rejects a connection with Ancient Greek οὐρά (ourá, “tail”) and considers the Greek word most probably Pre-Greek.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Virgil (70–19 BC) has it in the Eclogues: spinis surgit paliurus acutis, “Christ's thorn springs up with its sharp spines”.^[2][6][4]

Semantic evolution

It was the name of the thorny shrub Christ's thorn.^[2][6] Columella names it too, and Pliny the Elder uses the name for a shrub of Cyrenaica that the region preferred to the lotus, probably a species of jujube.^[2] The Vulgate has it in Isaiah,^[6] and Christian poets such as Sedulius used it, often spelled palliurus.^[3]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil names the thorny shrub in the Eclogues.^[2][6][4]
• 1st century AD – Columella names the shrub.^[2][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder applies the name to a shrub of Cyrenaica.^[2][4]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it in Isaiah.^[6][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Christ's thorn, the shrub Paliurus spina-christi.^[2][6][1]
2. A shrub of Cyrenaica, probably a species of jujube.^[2]

Usage notes

Paliurus was also the name of a river of Marmarica and of a town on it, from the Greek place name.^[1]

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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press