Etymologically
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vaccinium

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [wakˈkiː.ni.ũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [vatˈt͡ʃiː.ni.um][1]

Forms

vaccīnium n (genitive vaccīniī or vaccīnī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is perhaps borrowed from Ancient Greek ὑάκινθος (huákinthos, “hyacinth”) in a corrupted form,[2][3][4] reshaped after the adjective vaccīnus (“of cows”).[1] The Greek word is a loanword of unknown source.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Virgil is the first to use it, in the Eclogues: alba ligustra cadunt, vaccīnia nigra leguntur “the white privet flowers fall, the dark vaccinia are gathered”.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

What Virgil meant is uncertain: the OLD takes it as a dark-flowered plant like the marked hyacinth of Theocritus, perhaps an orchid,[2] and Georges equates it with hyacinthus.[3] In Vitruvius and Pliny the Elder it is a plant that gives a purple dye, probably the whortleberry or bilberry.[2][5][6] It became the botanical name of the genus Vaccinium, and so English vaccinium.[1]

Timeline

  • 70–19 BC – Virgil names a dark flower with it.[2][4]
  • c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it for a purple dye.[2][4]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder describes the plant.[5][4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A dark-flowered plant in Virgil, variously identified as a kind of hyacinth or an orchid.[2][3]
  2. A plant yielding a purple dye, probably the whortleberry, or its berry.[2][5][6]
  • English vaccinium

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.