prunus

Forms

prūnus f (genitive prūnī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek προύνη (proúnē, “plum tree”),^[1][2][3] which Wiktionary and Köbler take to be a loanword from a language of Asia Minor.^[1][3] The OLD treats it together with prūnum “plum”, which it explains as a loanword from Greek προῦμνον (proûmnon).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cato is the first author Köbler and Gaffiot give for it, in his treatise on farming, where it is the plum tree.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it is the plum tree, named by Virgil, Columella, Pliny the Elder and Palladius.^[6][5] With silvestris (“wild”) it named the blackthorn or sloe.^[6][7]

Medieval Latin kept the word for the plum tree; the DMLBS quotes glosses that render it with Old English, Anglo-Norman and Middle English words for the tree.^[8]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato names the plum tree in his work on agriculture.^[5][3]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil mentions the plum tree in the Georgics.^[6]
• 1st century AD – Columella names the wild plum, the sloe.^[6][7]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for the plum tree and the blackthorn.^[6][5]
• end of the 4th or beginning of the 5th century AD – Palladius uses it in his work on farming.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A plum tree.^[4][6][7]
2. prūnus silvestris: the blackthorn or sloe tree.^[6][7]

Word family

• prūniceus

Related words

• prūnum

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ 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