Etymologically
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pomifer

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpoː.mɪ.fɛr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈpɔː.mi.fer][1]

Forms

pōmifer (feminine pōmifera, neuter pōmiferum); first/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er)[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin pōmum (“fruit”) + -fer (“bearing”),[2][1] the second part being from ferō (“to carry, bear”).[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Horace has it first,[5] of the fruitful year and of fruit-bearing autumn.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Propertius calls the Anio pomifer, the river that makes the fields bear fruit.[2] Lewis and Short call it poetic and post-Augustan in prose: Seneca's tragedies, Pliny the Elder, Mela, Suetonius and Apuleius use it of fruit trees, groves and gardens, and Pliny describes a tree that bears fruit at all times.[2][4] The feminine plural served as a noun for fruit trees in Columella and Pliny.[2][4] An inscription calls Silvanus pomifer.[4]

The Vulgate has lignum pomiferum for the fruit tree of Genesis, and medieval British writers quote the phrase; one hymn applies the word to the Virgin.[4][6]

Timeline

  • 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of the year and of autumn.[2][5]
  • 57/46–12 BC – Propertius calls the Anio fruitful.[2][5]
  • 1st century AD – Columella uses the feminine plural for fruit trees.[2][5]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of trees.[2][5]
  • 390–406 AD – The Vulgate has lignum pomiferum in Genesis.[4][5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Bearing fruit, fruitful.[2][4]
  2. Making things bear fruit.[2]

Noun

  1. (feminine plural) Fruit trees.[2][4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press