lignum Latin · revision 30865

+ {{infobox|confidence=probable|formation=inherited|attested=c. 250–184 BC, Plautus|origins=ine-pro *leǵ-}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ˈlɪŋ.nũː]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [ˈliɲ.ɲum]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''lignum''' ''n'' (genitive lignī); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|itc-pro|*legno-]], [[inh|ine-pro|*leǵ-no-]], from the root [[ine-pro|*leǵ-|t=to collect]], also in [[m|la|legō|t=to gather]]: it would first have been wood gathered for the fire.^(de Vaan 2008)^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010) De Vaan explains the vowel by the regular change of ⟨-egn-⟩ to ⟨-ign-⟩.^(de Vaan 2008) Varro already connected it with gathering, saying that the wood that fell in the fields was picked up.^(TLL)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Plautus, ''Truculentus'': ''opust lignō, opust carbōnibus'', “there's need of firewood, there's need of charcoal”.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Its first sense is firewood, mostly in the plural, as in Cato's ''ligna'' that will burn well without smoke.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) In general it is wood as it grows, in Virgil's olive root pushed out of dry wood, and wood as a material: Cato says ''ad lignum dēlē'', “wipe it down to the wood” of a wax tablet.^(OLD 2012) It is the wooden shaft of a spear, and Pliny the Elder uses it of the stone of a fruit.^(OLD 2012) The jurists set ''ligna'', firewood, against ''māteria'', building timber.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ Church Latin uses it of a tree, a staff and the Cross.^(Stelten 1995) In Medieval Latin it is also a forest, the gallows, the stocks, a rod and a ship.^(Niermeyer 1976)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of firewood.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 234–149 BC – Cato of wood as a material.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil of growing wood and a spear shaft.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of a fruit stone.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # ''(especially plural)'' [[m|en|firewood|alt=Firewood]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)

+ # [[m|en|wood|alt=Wood]] (growing); a tree.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(Stelten 1995)

+ # Wood as a material; a wooden object; the shaft of a spear.^(OLD 2012)

+ # The stone of a fruit.^(OLD 2012)

+ # ''(Ecclesiastical Latin)'' The [[m|en|cross|alt=Cross]].^(Stelten 1995)^(Niermeyer 1976)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' A forest; the [[m|en|gallows]]; the stocks; a ship.^(Niermeyer 1976)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[lignārius]]

+ * [[ligneus]]

+ * [[lignicīda]]

+ * [[lignor]]

+ * [[lignōsus]]

+ * [[lignāmen]]

+ * [[lignātiō]]

+ * [[lignātor]]

+ * [[ligneolus]]

+ * [[lignicolor]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[legō]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}