pulegium

Latin

Alternative forms

• pūlēium, pūledium, pullegium, pullēium, pulledium

Etymology

Probably from pūlex (flea), due to its traditional use as a flea repellant.

Noun

pūlegium n (genitive pūlegiī or pūlegī); second declension

1. pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium)

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	pūlegium	pūlegia
Genitive	pūlegiī pūlegī1	pūlegiōrum
Dative	pūlegiō	pūlegiīs
Accusative	pūlegium	pūlegia
Ablative	pūlegiō	pūlegiīs
Vocative	pūlegium	pūlegia

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Descendants

• Galician: poexo, poenxo, poxo, puexo
• Italian: poleggio, puleggio
• Portuguese: poejo
• Spanish: poleo
• → German: Poleiminze
• → Polish: polej
• → Romanian: polei

• ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *pūlegiolum
  • Catalan: poliol
  • Old French: puliol
    • French: pouliot
    • → Middle English: puliol, pulliolle, pulial, piliol, pilliol, pileol
      • English: puliol, puliall, puliol royall, puliall royall, pennyroyal (√ pūlēium rēgium)

References

• “pulegium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• pulegium in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• pulegium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.