populeus

Forms

pōpuleus (feminine pōpulea, neuter pōpuleum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] Some manuscripts of Valerius Flaccus and the Vulgate have pup-.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin pōpulus² (“poplar”) + -eus.^[3][2][1] De Vaan finds no etymology for pōpulus²; Ancient Greek πτελέα (pteléa, “elm”) shares /p/ and /l/ with it, but no regular correspondence can be found.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Ennius,^[5] whose Annals have it of poplar foliage, quoted by Ausonius;^[6] the TLL calls Ennius probable and finds it certainly from Virgil, Horace and Ovid on.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means of or belonging to a poplar, and arbor pōpulea is a poplar tree:^[3] Virgil has poplar leaves and poplar shade, and Horace a poplar wreath.^[6] It also means consisting of poplars, as Lucan's river whose banks were shaded by a crown of poplars,^[3] and the OLD notes its use of the sisters of Phaethon who were turned into poplars.^[3] The TLL finds it often in the poets.^[2]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius, of poplar foliage.^[6][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil, of poplar leaves and shade.^[6][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace, of a poplar wreath.^[6][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a poplar, poplar-.^[3][6][1]
2. Consisting of poplars.^[3]

Related words

• pōpulus²

References

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