uva

Forms

ūva f (genitive ūvae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *oiwā.^[2][3][1] Cognate with Ancient Greek ὄα (óa, “service tree”) and Old Armenian այգի (aygi, “vine”), which also go back to ⟨*oiwā-⟩, and with tree names from ⟨*eiwā-⟩ elsewhere, Lithuanian ievà (“bird cherry”), Russian ива (iva, “willow”) and Proto-Germanic *īwaz (“yew”).^[2][1] Because of the varying root vowel de Vaan finds an Indo-European origin difficult, and suggests that this tree name may have been borrowed from a non-Indo-European language.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan gives Lucilius as its first author,^[2] but Plautus already has ūva passa, a raisin, in the Poenulus: “you'll hang by me like a dried grape”.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

It is a bunch of grapes, and loosely grapes in general, as Lucilius' figs and grapes eaten, ūva passa is a raisin.^[3][1] By likeness Pliny the Elder uses it of a cluster of other fruit or flowers, of a swarm of bees hanging like a bunch of grapes, and perhaps of cuttlefish eggs.^[3][1] In medicine, from Celsus on, it is the uvula, often swollen, and a bulging of the eye.^[3]

Church Latin glosses it “grape, bunch of grapes”.^[5] Its diminutive is ūvula.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a raisin.^[3][4]
• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius of grapes eaten.^[3][2][4]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus of the uvula.^[3][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of a swarm of bees.^[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bunch of grapes; grapes, ūva passa, a raisin.^[3][1][5]
2. A cluster (of other fruit or flowers); a cluster of swarming bees.^[3][1]
3. (medicine) The uvula; a bulging of the eye.^[3][1]

Related words

• ūvifer
• vītis
• racēmus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson