20.08.24: follow-up; food and drink [11]; vocabulary [1]

All the Pliny the Elder quotations are from Naturalis Historia

https://www.attalus.org/info/pliny_hn.html

1st declension

ananāsa, -ae [1/f]: (New Latin) pineapple; the origin could be directly from Portuguese ananás or via Spanish; other forms of the word exist: ananās [f] as an indeclinable noun

https://neolatinlexicon.org/latin/pineapple/

mūsa, -ae [1/f]: banana (see post 18.08.24)

palmula, -ae [1/f] -ul- is use to create a diminutive i.e. it makes the word ‘smaller’; palma, -ae [1/f] [i] palm of the hand [ii] palm tree > palmula: the fruit of the palm tree i.e. date

ūva, -ae [1/f]: grape

2nd declension

cerasus, -ī [2/f] or cerasum, -ī [2/n]: cherry (tree or fruit)

mangus, -ī [2/m]: (New Latin) mango

aurantium, -ī [2/n]: orange tree from aurantius, -a, -um: orange coloured; both are Late Latin

sūcus, -ī [2/m] or succus, -ī [2/m] aurantiī: orange juice

Wiktionary gives the detailed etymology of words, tracing their origin as far back as possible but [image] https://latin-dictionary.net/ also gives a brief summary of when the word first appeared and how common it is:

citreum, -ī [2/n]: citron tree; fruit of the citron tree i.e. lemon

Cupressinum oleum eōsdem effectūs habet quōs myrteum, item citreum. (Pliny the Elder) │ Oil of cypress has the same effects as oil of myrtle and as oil of citrus.

frāgum, -ī [2/n]: strawberry plant; plur. frāga, -ōrum: strawberries

Quī legitis flōrēs et humī nāscentia frāga, / frīgidus, ō puerī (fugite hinc!), latet anguis in herbā. (Vergil)

“You, picking flowers and strawberries that grow / so near the ground, fly hence, boys, get you gone! / There's a cold adder lurking in the grass.”

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Three ways of eating pomegranates?

[i] grānātum, -ī [2/n]

Sed circā Carthāginem Pūnicum mālum cognōmine sibi vindicat; aliquī grānātum appellant. (Pliny the Elder) │ But the country in the neighbourhood of Carthage claims by the name of Punic apple (see [iii] below) what some call the pomegranate

[ii] apȳrēnum, -ī [2/n]

Pliny the Elder continues:

dīvīsit et in genera apȳrēnum vocandō cui lignōsus nucleus abesset │ this it has also split up into classes, by giving the name of apyrenum to the variety that lacks a woody kernel

[iii] mālum pūnicum (Punic apple) which Pliny the Elder refers to in [i] above as being an alternative name

From Cato De Agricultura:

inde bienniō post effoditō seritōque. Fīcum, oleam, mālum Pūnicum, cotoneum aliaque māla omnia, … │ Then two years later dig up and transplant them. Fig, olive, pomegranate, quince, and all other fruit trees, …

Note also from the same extract:

fīcus, -ūs [4^th decl.] or fīcus, -ī [2^nd decl.]; the word could be masculine or feminine: fig (fruit or tree)

olea, -ae [1/f]: olive (tree or fruit) or olīva, -ae [1/f]

cotōneum, -ī [2/n] or mālum cotōneum (“Cydonian apple”): quince

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kivium, -ī [2/n]: kiwi (from Maori); the Romans didn’t have them, but the Latin language does:

https://neolatinlexicon.org/latin/kiwi/

lycopersicum, -ī [2/n]: tomato; this is a good example of scholarly or scientific vocabulary since the species originated in Central and South America and was introduced to other European colonies in the 16^th century

The word is derived from Anc. Gk. λύκος  / lúkos: “wolf” + περσικών / persikṓn “peach”; if you’re scared of wolves, you suffer from lycophobia. If you’re a lycanthrope, then you tend rapidly to grow body hair and howl a lot during a full moon.

mālum, -ī [2/n]: apple

mālum persicum: (“Persian apple”) peach; persicus, -ī [2/f]: peach tree

pirum, -ī [2/n]: pear

pōmum, -ī [2/n]: note - this can refer to any type of fruit i.e. don't be influenced by Fr. pomme (apple)

stābat adhūc dūrīs fīcus dēnsissima pōmīs (Ovid) │ There stood a fig-tree, still loaded with unripe fruit.

prūnum, -ī [2/n]: plum

vaccīnium, -ī [2/n]: blueberry; the term in English refers to a genus of plants that include cranberries, blueberries and whortleberries (bilberries)

Nōn nisi in aquōsīs prōveniunt salicēs, alnī, populī, siler, ligustra …, item vaccīnia Ītaliae in aucupiīs sata, Galliae vērō etiam purpurae tinguendae causā ad servitiōrum vestēs. (Pliny the Elder) │ Willows, alders, poplars, the siler and the privet, …, will only grow in places where there is water, and the same is the case with the whortleberry, grown in bird-snares in Italy, but in Gaul also to supply purple dye for slaves' clothes.

When doing this kind of work, you can sometimes become side-tracked.

Apart from the reference to the fruit, I was also interested in the remark concerning the use of purple dye for slaves’ clothes in Gaul, something that I’d never read before. While Pliny isn’t referring to the expensive Tyrian purple dye used for the great and good of Rome, the colour purple itself does not always appear to have been the exclusive domain of the upper echelons of society.

3^rd declension

mēlō, mēlōnis [3/m]: (Late Latin) melon; possibly a shortening of mēlopepō, mēlopepōnis [3/m]: "an apple-shaped melon" (Lewis and Short) 

4th declension

fīcus, -ūs [4 m/f]: fig (see earlier note)

Where it all started …

fructus, -ūs [4/m] fruit