polygonos

Forms

polygonos f (genitive polygonī); second declension^[1] Also polygonus,^[2] the neuter polygonon and polygonium.^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek πολύγονος (polúgonos).^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pliny the Elder (23/24–79 AD) is the source the OLD cites: he says that polygonus taken as a drink purges, and that the Greeks call polygonum the plant the Romans call sanguinaria.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It is the plant knotgrass, Polygonum aviculare,^[2] whose native Latin names were herba sanguinalis or sanguinaria.^[1] Isidore of Seville explains that name: put into the nostrils, the herb makes them bleed.^[4] Greek–Latin glossaries list many other names for it, some of them garbled.^[5]

Timeline

• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder describes the plant and its Latin name sanguinaria.^[2][3]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville explains the name herba sanguinaria.^[4][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. knotgrass, Polygonum aviculare.^[2][1][6]

Usage notes

The OLD has a separate adjective polygōnos, “polygonal”, from Ancient Greek πολύγωνος (polúgōnos);^[2] the figure itself is polygōnum.^[7][1] Lewis & Short also cite a form polygonium from Scribonius Largus.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
5. ^ Goetz, Georg (1888–1923), Corpus glossariorum Latinorum, Leipzig: Teubner; vols. VI–VII Thesaurus glossarum emendatarum, digital ed. CGLO, Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
7. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften