pirus

Forms

pirus f (genitive pirī); second declension^[1] Manuscripts also spell it perus and pyrus.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin pirum (“pear”), the name of the fruit.^[3][1][4] De Vaan takes pirum as a loanword from a Mediterranean language, like Ancient Greek ἄπιον (ápion, “pear”);^[5] a derivation of both from a PIE ⟨*h₂pis-o-⟩ does not explain the Latin ⟨i⟩.^[5] Isidore derived the name from Greek “fire”, since the fruit is shaped like a flame, broad below and narrow above.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Cato.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

It is the pear tree, as in Virgil's “graft your pear trees now, Meliboeus”.^[6] Pliny the Elder discusses it among the trees,^[6] and Macrobius lists it among the fruitful trees, arborēs fēlīcēs.^[6]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato has the word.^[5][4]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil, of grafting pear trees.^[6][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder, of the pear tree.^[6][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pear tree.^[3][6][1]

Related words

• pirum

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press