avena Latin · revision 33052

+ {{infobox|confidence=probable|attested=204–169 BC, Ennius}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [aˈweː.na]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [aˈvɛː.na]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''avēna''' ''f'' (genitive avēnae); first declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is probably a word from a non-Indo-European substrate.^(de Vaan 2008)^(Wiktionary) De Vaan reconstructs [[itc-pro|*aweksnā-]].^(de Vaan 2008) Cognate with [[prg|wyse|t=oats]], [[lt|avižà|t=oats]], [[lv|àuzas|t=oats]] and [[sh|òvas|t=oats]], from [[sla-pro|*ovьsъ]].^(de Vaan 2008)^(Wiktionary) The suffix is odd, since Baltic and Slavic do not share it and in Latin it would be expected to give ⟨-īna⟩, not ⟨-ēna⟩; de Vaan rejects Walde and Hofmann's idea that ⟨*avīna⟩ was remade after [[m|la|harēna|t=sand]].^(de Vaan 2008) Older scholars connected it with [[m|la|aveō]] or with [[m|la|ovis|t=sheep]].^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(TLL)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ De Vaan and Köbler date it from Ennius,^(de Vaan 2008)^(Köbler 2010) who writes of picking out and removing oats and darnel growing among the wheat.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It is the oat, probably together with related grasses,^(OLD 2012) both cultivated oats and wild oats, a weed in the grain, as in Cato and Cicero.^(Lewis & Short 1879) Virgil has a crop of oats that burns up the field, and Columella and Horace use it too.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) It is also a stalk, as Pliny the Elder of the slender stalk of flax, or a drinking straw.^(OLD 2012) From a hollow stalk it becomes a shepherd's pipe: Virgil's first Eclogue opens with a woodland Muse practised on a slender reed, and Ovid has the plural for the pan pipes.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary) The grammarians distinguished ''avēnae'', a barren growth, from ''habēnae'', reins.^(TLL)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 204–169 BC – Ennius of oats among the wheat.^(OLD 2012)^(de Vaan 2008)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 234–149 BC – Cato of wild oats.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil of oats and of the shepherd's pipe.^(OLD 2012)

+ * 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of pan pipes.^(OLD 2012)

+ * 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of the stalk of flax.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # The [[m|en|oat]], oats; wild oats.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A [[m|en|stalk]], straw; a drinking straw.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(poetic)'' A shepherd's pipe made of a stalk;^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary) ''(plural)'' [[m|en|panpipes|alt=pan pipes]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[avēnāceus]]

+ * [[avēnārius]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}