ramale

Forms

rāmāle n (genitive rāmālis); third declension^[1] It is mostly used in the plural, rāmālia.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin rāmus (“branch”) + -ālis, the neuter of the adjective used as a noun.^[2][1][4] De Vaan explains rāmus as possibly from Proto-Italic *wrā(d)mo-, if it is cognate with rādīx (“root”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Ovid,^[6] who has dry twigs (ramalia arida).^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

Persius has the rare singular, ut ramale vetus (“like an old dry branch”), and the plural.^[3][7] Seneca speaks of branches packed close and leaves heaped up,^[7][9] and Tacitus of the dead branches of a tree (mortua ramalia).^[7][3] Döderlein distinguishes it from rāmī, the living green boughs: ramalia are the withered, dry ones.^[10]

Martianus Capella and later writers kept it, and Papias glosses it as branches or leaves.^[11] In a charter of 1166, preserved in a 14th-century copy, it names twigs that may be gathered, called “spren” in English.^[12]

Timeline

• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of dry twigs.^[7][6]
• 34–62 AD – Persius uses the singular.^[3][6]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of the dead branches of a tree.^[7][6]
• 1166 – A charter grants the right to gather ramalia.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. (usually plural) Twigs, small branches, brushwood, especially dry ones.^[2][3][10]
2. (singular) A dry branch.^[9][3]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
10. ^ a b Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
11. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
12. ^ a b 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