pirus
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Pronunciation
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
Related words
References
- ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
- ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press