ramulus

Forms

rāmulus m (genitive rāmulī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin rāmus (“branch”) + -ulus (“diminutive suffix”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of the noun.^[4] rāmus itself may go back to Proto-Italic *wrā(d)mo- and Proto-Indo-European *u̯r(e)h2-(d-)mo-, if it is cognate with rādīx (“root”), but de Vaan marks the reconstruction with a question mark.^[4]

The TLL takes Romanian ramură to continue it, unless that word comes from a plural *rāmora.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Cato's treatise on farming (De agri cultura 101), in the sense of a little branch or twig.^[5][4][6]

Semantic evolution

According to the TLL, it belongs mainly to prose: after Cato it occurs in Cicero and Varro, in verse only in Catullus, and it is frequent in the technical writers, Columella (some 25 times) and Pliny the Elder (22 times).^[3] Cicero uses it in the De divinatione (1.123).^[5] Besides a twig it could mean a sprig of a plant.^[1]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it in his treatise on farming.^[5][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero has it in the De divinatione.^[5][6]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus is the only poet to use it.^[3][6]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it about 25 times.^[3][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it 22 times.^[3][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A little branch, a twig.^[2][5]
2. A sprig.^[5][1]

Word family

• rāmulōsus

References

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