viscum

Forms

viscum n (genitive viscī); second declension^[1] Plautus has the masculine viscus.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is perhaps inherited from Proto-Italic *wisko-.^[3] De Vaan regards it as either a Proto-Indo-European word or a European loanword for mistletoe or another fruit-bearing tree; the original form may have been *wiks-, with metathesis in Latin, or *wiKsk-, with the middle cluster simplified differently in each language.^[3] Wiktionary gives Proto-Indo-European *weyḱs- with a question mark.^[1] Cognate with Ancient Greek ἰξός (ixós, “mistletoe; birdlime”), Old High German wīhsela (“morello cherry”) and Proto-Slavic *višьňa.^[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[3] who uses the masculine viscus for birdlime in a figure: in the Bacchides flattery is viscus merus, pure birdlime.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Cato gives a recipe to be boiled until as thick as birdlime,^[2] and Cicero says that a small creature sticks in the wax of the ear as in birdlime.^[2] Virgil counts trapping birds with lime among the early inventions, and in the Aeneid describes mistletoe green with new leaves in winter on a tree that did not sow it.^[2] Pliny the Elder describes the plant on oaks and other trees, and Columella and Celsus use it in medicine.^[2][4] It was also applied to other sticky substances, as pitch in Juvenal.^[2] Medieval writers used it of mistletoe, especially that of the oak, in medicine.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for birdlime, figuratively.^[3][2][6]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it as a measure of thickness.^[2][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of birdlime and of the mistletoe.^[2][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder describes the plant.^[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Mistletoe, a plant parasitic on trees.^[2][7]
2. Birdlime made from mistletoe berries; figuratively, a snare.^[2][7]
3. Any other sticky substance, such as pitch.^[2][8]

Word family

• viscidus
• viscōsus
• viscātus

Usage notes

The OLD's second viscum is only a variant of the unrelated viscus “internal organ”.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson