pomarium

Forms

pōmārium n (genitive pōmāriī or pōmārī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin pōmum (“fruit”) + -ārium.^[2][3] De Vaan records it from Varro on, beside the adjective pōmārius (“of fruit”), under pōmus (“fruit tree”); he tentatively explains that word as a form meaning “taken off, picked”, Proto-Italic *po-emo-.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and the OLD record it first in Varro,^[4][2] whose De re rustica asks whether Italy is not so planted with trees that the whole of it seems an orchard.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Cicero lists orchards among the delights of country life, Horace pictures orchards watered by running streams, and Ovid and Columella also use it; an inscription names a building with its orchards and pools.^[2][5] Pliny the Elder uses it of a fruit store, which should be floored with boards in a cold place with windows to the north.^[2][6]

It still meant an orchard in Ecclesiastical Latin.^[7] Italian pomario comes from it.^[5]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it for an orchard.^[2][4][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero names orchards among the pleasures of farming.^[2][8]
• 65–8 BC – Horace writes of orchards watered by streams.^[2][8]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of a fruit store.^[2][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A fruit garden, orchard.^[2][6][7]
2. A fruit store, a room where fruit is kept.^[2][6]

Word family

• pōmāriolum

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de