fraxinus

From Proto-Italic *frā̆ksinos or *frā̆ksenos, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰr̥Hǵ-s-inos or *bʰr̥Hǵ-s-enos, adjective of *bʰerHǵós (“birch”). Cognate with Sanskrit भूर्ज (bhūrjá, “Himalayan birch”) (Betula utilis), English birch, Russian берёза (berjóza).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈfraːk.sɪ.nʊs], [ˈfrak.sɪ.nʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈfrak.si.nus]
• The quantity of the A is uncertain, but Schrijver and De Vaan think it more likely to be short. For the change of PIE *Cr̥HCC- to Proto-Italic *CrăCC-, Schrijver compares flagrum, fragrō. For the (possible) lack of lengthening before -ǵ-s- (which might be expected based on Lachmann's Law), compare lassus from *lh₁d-to-s: Schrijver proposes that PIE stops of the traditional voiced series (which Schrijver considers to be glottalized) were neutralized with plain voiceless stops after a tautosyllabic laryngeal. Also compare maximus.

frā̆xinus f (genitive frā̆xinī); second declension

1. an ash tree
   • 77 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 16.30:

     montes et valles diligit abies, robur, castaneae, tilia, ilex, cornus. aquosis montibus gaudent acer, fraxinus, sorbus, tilia, cerasus.

     Mountains and valleys are favoured by fir, oak, chestnut, linden, scarlet oak, dogwood. Wet mountains abound in maple, ash, service-tree, linden, [and] cherry.

2. an ashen spear or javelin

Second-declension noun.

• Frā̆sinus
• frā̆xineus
• frā̆xinētum

frā̆xinus (feminine frā̆xina, neuter frā̆xinum); first/second-declension adjective

1. of ash wood; ashen
   • 8 CE, Ovid, Metamorphoses 7.677–678:

     […] certe si fraxinus esset, fulva colore foret […]

     surely if it were of ash, it would have a yellow color

First/second-declension adjective.

• AIS: Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz [Linguistic and Ethnographic Atlas of Italy and Southern Switzerland] – map 588: “il frassino” – on navigais-web.pd.istc.cnr.it
• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002), “fraxĭnus”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volume 3: D–F, page 771
• Schrijver, Peter C. H. (1991), The reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European laryngeals in Latin (Leiden studies in Indo-European; 2), Amsterdam, Atlanta: Rodopi, →ISBN, pages 186-188, 489
• De Vaan, Michiel (2008), “fraxinus”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 240-241

• “fraxinus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “fraxinus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “fraxinus”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “fraxinus”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly