cytisus Latin · revision 34285

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=116–27 BC, Varro|origins=grc κύτισος}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

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

+ * Ecclesiastical: [ˈt͡ʃiː.ti.s̬us]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''cytisus''' ''m'' (genitive cytisī); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+ Mostly feminine, sometimes masculine;^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(TLL) Varro and Columella also have a neuter ''cytisum''.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(TLL)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|grc|κύτισος|tr=kútisos]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)^(TLL) Köbler, after Frisk, takes the Greek word to be probably a loanword itself.^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Lewis and Short and the TLL cite it first in Varro's work on agriculture, in the neuter ''cytisum'', then in Virgil's ''Eclogues'';^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(TLL) Köbler dates it from Virgil.^(Köbler 2010) It names a fodder plant, tree medick.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It named a shrubby fodder plant much valued by the ancients, identified as the tree medick, ''Medicago arborea''.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Pliny the Elder also uses it of the wood of this shrub, which he says comes close to ebony in its dark colour.^(OLD 2012) In Medieval Latin from Britain it is still the tree medick, glossed as a shrub.^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 116–27 BC – Varro has the neuter ''cytisum''.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it in the ''Eclogues''.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of the shrub's wood.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A shrubby [[m|en|fodder]] plant, [[m|en|tree medick]] (''Medicago arborea'').^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(DMLBS)

+ # The wood of this shrub.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}