arbutus Latin · revision 34206

+ {{infobox|confidence=unknown|attested=116–27 BC, Varro}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ˈar.bʊ.tʊs]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [ˈar.bu.tus]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''arbutus''' ''f'' (genitive arbutī); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ The origin is unknown.^(OLD 2012)^(TLL) Lewis and Short connected it with [[m|la|arbor|t=tree]], but Köbler, following Walde and Hofmann, finds all attempts at an explanation unsatisfactory, and Wiktionary reports that Schrijver finds no reliable etymology.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Köbler records it first in Varro,^(Köbler 2010) who names it among the trees that bear more fruit higher up.^(TLL)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It is the strawberry tree, ''Arbutus unedo''.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Virgil names it as sweet food for weaned kids and says it can be grafted with the walnut, Horace has goats seeking it and a man lying under a green arbutus, and Ovid has it loaded with red fruit.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(TLL) Columella counts it among shrubs and wild fruit trees and mentions honey that comes from it, and Pliny the Elder says that the Greeks have two names for its fruit, ''comaron'' and ''memaecylon'', and gives ''unedo'' as another name.^(TLL) The grammarians note that the tree is feminine and its fruit neuter, [[arbutum]], while Horace has the plural ''arbutos''.^(TLL) In medieval British sources it can mean the crab-apple tree, as in fifteenth-century glosses and a deed of 1467, and a glossary renders it with Old English ''æspe'', which the DMLBS takes as poplar.^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 116–27 BC – Varro names it among fruit trees.^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil names it as food for goats.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 65–8 BC – Horace has a man resting under it.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder gives its Greek names and the name ''unedo''.^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 1467 – A British deed uses it of the crab-apple tree.^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # The [[m|en|strawberry tree]], [[m|en|arbutus]] (''Arbutus unedo'').^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' The [[m|en|crab-apple]] tree; also the [[m|en|poplar]].^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[arbuteus]]

+ * [[arbutum]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[en|arbutus]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}