ostrea Latin · revision 34019

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=c. 250–184 BC, Plautus|origins=grc ὄστρεον}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ˈɔs.tre.a]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [ˈɔs.tre.a]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''ostrea''' ''f'' (genitive ostreae); first declension^(Wiktionary)

+ A neuter ''ostreum'' (genitive ''ostreī'') is also used, from Ennius on.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ Horace scans the word as two syllables.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|grc|ὄστρεον|tr=óstreon|t=oyster]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(Köbler 2010) The TLL takes the feminine to have grown out of the neuter plural, the neuter perhaps being restored after the Greek in more refined speech, and notes that Varro already recognised the Greek origin.^(TLL) Köbler compares [[ine-pro|*ost-|t=bone]], the root of the Greek word for bone.^(Köbler 2010)^(Etymonline) Isidore of Seville explained the name from [[m|la|testa|t=shell]], the shell that protects the soft flesh inside.^(TLL)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The OLD's first citation is Plautus' ''Rudens'', in a list of catches from the sea: sea urchins, limpets, oysters and acorn-shells.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It names a bivalve shellfish, above all the oyster as a delicacy;^(OLD 2012) Lewis & Short also give "mussel" and "sea-snail".^(Lewis & Short 1879) Varro mentions Lucrine oysters in his Menippean satires, and Cicero writes that he had easily kept away from oysters and lampreys.^(OLD 2012) Cicero also reports the belief that oysters and other shellfish grow and shrink with the moon.^(OLD 2012) Pliny the Elder mentions oyster beds,^(Lewis & Short 1879) Juvenal writes of people who run off to Baiae and its oysters, and Gellius names the oysters of Tarentum.^(OLD 2012) English [[m|en|oyster]] comes from the Old French form and directly from this word.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of oysters among the catches of the sea.^(OLD 2012)

+ * 204–169 BC – Ennius uses the neuter ''ostreum''.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ * 116–27 BC – Varro of Lucrine oysters.^(OLD 2012)

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero of oysters and the moon.^(OLD 2012)

+ * c. 165 AD – Gellius of the oysters of Tarentum.^(OLD 2012)

+ * late 13th century – English ''oistre'', from Latin, partly through Old French.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|bivalve]] shellfish; especially an [[m|en|oyster]] as a delicacy.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)^(Stelten 1995)

+ # A [[m|en|mussel]] or sea-snail.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[ostreārius]]

+ * [[ostreātus]]

+ * [[ostreōsus]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[en|oyster]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}