triticum

Forms

trīticum n (genitive trīticī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from trītus (“rubbed, threshed”), the past participle of terō (“to rub, thresh”), with the suffix -icum, so “grain for threshing”;^[1][2][3][4] Varro already derives it from ⟨terō⟩.^[1][2][3][4] De Vaan derives ⟨terō⟩ from Proto-Italic *tera- and Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- (“to rub”), cognate with Ancient Greek τείρω (teírō, “to wear out, distress”) and Russian тереть (terétʹ, “to rub”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus is the first author in Lewis and Short, with trīticī modiōs decem, “ten measures of wheat”, in the Stichus;^[3][2] the OLD's first example for the growing plant is Ennius, of oats and darnel growing among the wheat;^[2][6] Köbler gives Varro.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It is wheat as a plant or crop, especially a wheat of the emmer group, and the threshed grain as a commodity, as in Plautus.^[2][3] Columella and Pliny the Elder describe its kinds.^[3] Church Latin glosses it “wheat”.^[7]

The Modern Latin genus name Triticum comes from it, and with Secale it gave English triticale in 1952.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of measures of wheat.^[2][3][6]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius of wheat as a crop.^[2][6]
• 116–27 BC – Varro derives it from terō.^[3][6]
• 1952 – English triticale, from Triticum and Secale.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Wheat (the plant or crop).^[2][3][1]
2. Threshed wheat, wheat as a commodity.^[2]

Word family

• trīticārius
• trīticeus
• triticiarius
• triticinus

Related words

• terō
• far
• frūmentum
• hordeum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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 e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson