cupressus Latin · revision 32505

+ {{infobox|confidence=disputed|formation=borrowing|attested=204–169 BC, Ennius|origins=grc κυπάρισσος}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [kʊˈprɛs.sʊs]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [kuˈprɛs.sus]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''cupressus''' ''m'' or f (genitive cupressī or cupressūs); variously declined, second declension, fourth declension^(Wiktionary)

+ Ennius has a masculine accusative plural ''cupressōs''.^(Lewis & Short 1879) A fourth-declension genitive ''cupressūs'' is in Varro, Pliny the Elder and Apuleius, and an ablative ''cupressū'' in Catullus.^(OLD 2012) Virgil also has the Greek form ''cyparissus'', and Late Latin ''cypressus''.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ The TLL, Wiktionary and Köbler take it as [[bor|grc|κυπάρισσος|tr=kupárissos|t=cypress]].^(TLL)^(Wiktionary)^(Köbler 2010) The OLD regards it rather as a loanword from an unknown language, from which the Greek word also came;^(OLD 2012) Latin borrowed the Greek form separately as [[m|la|cyparissus]].^(OLD 2012) Köbler too traces the Greek word to a language of the Mediterranean world.^(Köbler 2010) Isidore explains the name from the way the tree's crown rises to a point.^(TLL)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Ennius has it first, of tall cypresses standing with straight foliage.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It is the cypress tree, and in poetry a spear of cypress wood.^(OLD 2012) Vitruvius recommends cypress wood when fir is scarce, and Celsus lists cypress, apparently its oil, among remedies that disperse swellings.^(OLD 2012) Lewis & Short note the masculine in Ennius and the frequent fourth-declension forms.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 204–169 BC – Ennius of tall cypresses.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus has the ablative cupressū.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius of cypress wood.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * late 12th century – English [[m|en|cypress]] comes through Old French from Late Latin cypressus.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|cypress]] tree; a spear of cypress wood.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # Cypress wood.^(OLD 2012)

+ # Oil of cypress.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[cupressētum]]

+ * [[cupresseus]]

+ * [[cupressifer]]

+ * [[cupressinus]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}