herba Sabina

Latin

Alternative forms

arbor Sabīna, Sabīna, sabīna (later)

Etymology

Literally “Sabine weed”, due to the abundance of the shrub in the Sabine territory; an epithet that later had no significance to the vulgar, hence stood alone for tree. Note also catanum (“Juniperus oxycedra”) borrowed from Sabine. Not related to sappīnus.

Pronunciation

(Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈhɛr.ba saˈbiː.na]
(modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈɛr.ba saˈbiː.na]

Noun

herba Sabīna f (genitive herbae Sabīnae); first declension

savin, Juniperus sabina

Declension

First-declension noun with a first-declension adjective, with locative.

	singular	plural
nominative	herba Sabīna	herbae Sabīnae
genitive	herbae Sabīnae	herbārum Sabīnārum
dative	herbae Sabīnae	herbīs Sabīnīs
accusative	herbam Sabīnam	herbās Sabīnās
ablative	herbā Sabīnā	herbīs Sabīnīs
vocative	herba Sabīna	herbae Sabīnae
locative	herbae Sabīnae	herbīs Sabīnīs

Descendants

Old French: savine
- → Middle English: savine, savin
  - English: savin
Old Italian: savina
Old Occitan: savina
→ Arabic: شَبِينَة (šabīna)
→ Proto-West Germanic: *sabinā (see there for further descendants)

(other Romance forms are newer borrowings omitted in this table)

References

Brüch, Josef (1922), “Lateinische Etymologien”, in Indogermanische Forschungen. Zeitschrift für Indogermanistik und allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft‎^[1] (in German), volume 40, Berlin und Leipzig: Walter de Gruyter & Co., pages 213–224