lemnos

Forms

lemnos m or n (feminine singular lemnoasă, masculine plural lemnoși, feminine/neuter plural lemnoase)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian lemn + -os, according to DEX, MDA2, DLR, Tiktin and Ciorănescu.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Pușcariu, Candrea and Densusianu, the REW and the DA took it instead from Latin līgnōsus (“woody”), as Ciorănescu reports, and Scriban and Wiktionary give both views.^{[6][7][8][9][1]} The Latin adjective is derived from lignum (“wood”).^[1]

Ciorănescu cites Aromanian limnos beside it.^[6] The Romance cognates include Italian legnoso, Catalan llenyós, Spanish leñoso and Portuguese lenhoso.^[8][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin and MDA2 give the first record in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis, a Romanian–Latin glossary of about 1670.^[5][3] It meant “woody”, the sense it has kept in botany.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In the 19th century the word became the botanical term for woody plants and tissues, as against herbaceous ones: Brezoianu wrote of the culture of woody plants, and Negruzzi described a stem as ierbos sau lemnos.^[4] MDA2 records further senses: made of wood, wood-like, a region rich in trees (rare), stony fruit, tough and stringy meat (regional), a skinny person, and a dull sound.^[3] As a feminine noun, lemnoasă is a variety of grape.^[3][6]

Timeline

• c. 1670 – lemnos in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis, the first record.^[5][3]
• 1825 – lemnos glossed with Latin lignosus in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[10]
• 1875 – lemnos “ligneous” in Antonescu's dictionary.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of plant tissue: woody, ligneous.^[2][3][1]
2. Made of wood; having the look and texture of wood.^[2][3][1]

Related words

• lemn
• lemnar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 585
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1346
4. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. lemnos
5. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. lemnos
6. ^ a b c d Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. lemn
7. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5033
9. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 739
10. ^ Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 349
11. ^ Antonescu, G. M. (1875), Dictionariu romanu-francesu, Bucuresci: Typografia Curții (Lucrători Associați), p. 163