Etymologically
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ramosus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [raːˈmoː.sʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [raˈmɔː.s̬us][1]

Forms

rāmōsus (feminine rāmōsa, neuter rāmōsum, superlative rāmōsissimus); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin rāmus (“branch”) + -ōsus (“full of”).[2][1][3] De Vaan thinks rāmus possibly comes from Proto-Italic *wrā(d)mo-, if it is cognate with rādīx (“root”), and points to a Greek word for branch or twig to show that one root could mean either branch or root.[4] If the root was simply Proto-Indo-European *u̯r(e)h2-, rāmus can also go back to a form without /d/.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and the OLD record it first in Lucretius,[3][2] who speaks of a ramosa arbor, a branching tree.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is abounding in branches, of trees and shrubs:[2] Ovid has a branching holm oak and a branching stake.[5] Pliny the Elder uses it of branched roots.[2][5] It is also used of other branching things: Lucretius imagines hard bodies held together by branched elements, and calls clouds forked;[2][5] Virgil has the branching antlers of a stag,[5] Pliny the branching coral,[5] and Ovid the Lernaean hydra.[5] Persius speaks figuratively of error that leads minds apart into branching crossroads, ramosa in compita.[5] The superlative is in Tertullian.[5]

Timeline

  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius, of a tree and of branched elements.[2][3]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil, of a stag's antlers.[5][3]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder, of roots and coral.[2][5][3]
  • 34–62 AD – Persius, of branching crossroads.[5][3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Full of branches, branchy; of roots, branched.[2][5][1]
  2. Branching, ramified (of antlers, coral, clouds and the like).[2][5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ a b 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 e f g h i j k l m n Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press