sentis

Pronunciation

• Classical: [ˈsɛn.tɪs]^[1]
• Ecclesiastical: [ˈsɛn.tis]^[1]

Forms

sentis m or f (genitive sentis); third declension^[1] Columella has the accusative sentim.^[2] It is feminine in the Culex and the Nux.^[3][2]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[3][1] The OLD tentatively compares Ancient Greek ξαίνω (xaínō, “to card, comb”),^[3] and Wiktionary and Köbler connect it with Pokorny's root Proto-Indo-European *ksen- (“to scratch, comb”), an extension of *kes-.^[1][4] Wiktionary relates it to sentus (“thorny, rough”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It is any thorny bush or shrub, a briar or bramble,^[3] usually in the plural sentēs.^[3][2] Lewis & Short call it mostly poetic and note that Cicero does not use it, though a decree of the senate quoted by Frontinus lists trees, vines, briars and thorns.^[2] Sentis canis was probably a kind of wild rose.^[3] Döderlein distinguishes the synonyms: dūmī are bushes growing thickly together like a wilderness, sentēs prickly bushes that wound, and veprēs both at once.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus.^[4]
• 1st century AD – Columella, with the accusative sentim.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A thorny bush, briar, bramble (usually in the plural).^[3][2][1]
2. sentis canis: probably a kind of wild rose.^[3]

Word family

• sentōsus
• sentus

Related words

• vepris
• dūmus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper