pirum
Pronunciation
Forms
pirum n (genitive pirī); second declension[1] Old editions often spell it pyr-.[2]
Etymology
De Vaan takes it as a loanword from a Mediterranean language, shared with Ancient Greek ἄπιον (ápion, “pear”).[3][2][4] Steinbauer derived both from Proto-Indo-European *h₂pis-o-, and the TLL also sets up one form ⟨*a₂piso-⟩, but de Vaan objects that this does not explain Latin ⟨piru-⟩ rather than ⟨*peru-⟩ and that such a root would be unusual.[3][5]
Earliest recorded meaning
Plautus has it first,[3][4] in the Poenulus.[6]
Semantic evolution
It is the pear, the fruit of pirus, the pear tree, which Cato names.[3] Cato and Varro deal with pears in their books on farming, and Columella and Pliny the Elder after them.[6] Horace has grafted pears plucked from the tree, and Lewis & Short also cite Virgil and Juvenal.[6]
Timeline
- c. 250–184 BC – Plautus has the word.[6][3][4]
- 234–149 BC – Cato, of pears on the farm.[6][4]
- 65–8 BC – Horace, of grafted pears.[6][4]
- 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder has the word.[6][4]
Meanings
Noun
Word family
- pirācium
Related words
References
- ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
- ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
- ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
- ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press