gorosti

Basque

Alternative forms

khorostü, koosti (Soule)
korosti, gorozti, kostei

Etymology

Possibly from Proto-Basque *golosti, but the ultimate origin is unknown. Perhaps a Mediterranean Wanderwort also found in Sardinian golosti, colostri (“holly”) and Ancient Greek κήλαστρος (kḗlastros, “holly”).

Beyond Sardinian and Greek, which clearly bear some resemblance to Basque, other putative cognates have been proposed. Some authors also cite Ticinese ğüštrún, šištrún (“whortleberry, Vaccinium myrtillus”), apparently from Proto-Celtic *glastos (“green”), via Gallo-Italic *wolostrone,^[1] but the semantics is quite doubtful. Agud and Tovar (1994) note that Old English gorst, English gorse (“furze, bramble”) and German Gerste (“barley”) are similar in shape to this word,^[2] however, as the Celtic term, they have a well-established Indo-European etymology.

Derivations that try to explain this word as a Basque compound, such as gora (“up, above”) +‎ osto (“leaf”), or that link it to garratz (“sour”) are to be considered folk etymologies.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ɡoɾos̺ti/ [ɡo.ɾos̺.t̪i]
Rhymes: -os̺ti, -i
Hyphenation: go‧ros‧ti

Noun

gorosti inan

(botany) holly (Ilex aquifolium)

Declension

Declension of *gorosti* (inan V-stem)
	indefinite	singular	plural	proximal plural
absolutive	gorosti	gorostia	gorostiak	gorostiok
ergative	gorostik	gorostiak	gorostiek	gorostiok
dative	gorostiri	gorostiari	gorostiei	gorostioi
genitive	gorostiren	gorostiaren	gorostien	gorostion
comitative	gorostirekin	gorostiarekin	gorostiekin	gorostiokin
causative	gorostirengatik	gorostiarengatik	gorostiengatik	gorostiongatik
benefactive	gorostirentzat	gorostiarentzat	gorostientzat	gorostiontzat
instrumental	gorostiz	gorostiaz	gorostiez	gorostiotaz
innesive	gorostitan	gorostian	gorostietan	gorostiotan
locative	gorostitako	gorostiko	gorostietako	gorostiotako
allative	gorostitara	gorostira	gorostietara	gorostiotara
terminative	gorostitaraino	gorostiraino	gorostietaraino	gorostiotaraino
directive	gorostitarantz	gorostirantz	gorostietarantz	gorostiotarantz
destinative	gorostitarako	gorostirako	gorostietarako	gorostiotarako
ablative	gorostitatik	gorostitik	gorostietatik	gorostiotatik
partitive	gorostirik	—	—	—
prolative	gorostitzat	—	—	—

Derived terms

gorostiki (“holly wood”)

References

^ Grzega, Joachim (2001), Romania Gallica Cisalpina: Etymologisch-geolinguistische Studien zu den oberitalienisch-rätoromanischen Keltizismen (Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie; 311), De Gruyter, pages 181-182
^ Agud, Manuel; Tovar, Antonio (1992), “Materiales para un diccionario etimológico de la lengua vasca (XV)”, in Anuario Del Seminario De Filología Vasca «Julio De Urquijo» (in Spanish), volume 26, number 3, Diputación Foral de Guipúzcoa, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 825–826