scirpus

Forms

scirpus m (genitive scirpī); second declension^[1] The spelling sirpus also occurs.^[2][3]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.^[4][5] De Vaan finds no etymology for it.^[6] Formally it could continue Proto-Italic *skerpo-, which he gives with a query, from the root Proto-Indo-European *skerp- (“to pluck, cut off”) of carpō, but he sees no compelling link in meaning between “what is picked” and the bulrush.^[6] Wiktionary instead suggests a root like Proto-Indo-European *(s)kerbʰ- (“to turn, wind”), comparing corbis (“basket”) and Ancient Greek κάρφος (kárphos, “stalk, straw”).^[1] Georges calls it an Etruscan word.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it for the bulrush in the Rudens and in the proverb about looking for a knot in a bulrush in the Menaechmi.^[4][8]

Semantic evolution

Because the stem of the bulrush is smooth and has no knots, nōdum in scirpō quaerere, “to look for a knot in a bulrush”, meant to make difficulties where there are none;^[4][7][8] Ennius, Plautus and Terence use the proverb.^[4][7][8] Isidore of Seville explains it in the same way, and quotes the saying that an enemy looks for a knot even in a bulrush.^[9]

Gellius reports that some early Roman writers called riddles scirpī, the kind of thing the Greeks called aenigmata;^[4] the OLD explains the name by the intricacy of basketwork.^[4] Pliny the Elder names the plant,^[2] and the Vulgate has it in the Book of Job.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for the bulrush and in the proverb of the knot.^[4][8][5]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius has the proverb in his Saturae.^[4][5]
• 190–159 BC – Terence uses the proverb in the Andria.^[7][8][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder mentions the plant.^[2][5]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius reports it as an old Latin name for a riddle.^[4][5]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it in the Book of Job.^[2][5]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville explains the proverb of the knot.^[9][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bulrush or a similar marsh plant used for weaving.^[4][2]
2. (proverbial) nōdum in scirpō quaerere, to look for a knot in a bulrush, that is, to find difficulties where there are none.^[4][2]
3. A kind of riddle.^[4][7]

Word family

• scirpeus
• scirpiculus
• scirpō
• scirpea
• scirpula

Related words

• carpō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).