arbutus

See also: Arbutus

English

fruit of the strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo)

trailing arbutus (Epigaea repens)

Etymology

From taxonomic name Arbutus, from Latin arbutus.

Noun

arbutus (countable and uncountable, plural arbutuses or arbuti)

1. A strawberry tree, any of the flowering plants in the genus Arbutus.
   • 1826, [Mary Shelley], chapter X, in The Last Man. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC:

     Many nights, though autumnal mists were spread around, I passed under an ilex - many times I have supped on arbutus berries and chestnuts, making a fire, gypsy-like, on the ground […]

2. A mayflower or trailing arbutus (Epigaea repens).
   • 1859, Ferna Vale, Natalie; or, A Gem Among the Sea-Weeds:

     Ah, who is he,—on whom young men and maidens look with pitying eye? to whom the old man lifts his hat, and little children cease from their sports as he passes, and quietly slip the innocent daisy, or the sweet-scented arbutus into his hand, which they have culled from the wide commons, where, they have been told, the good Sea-flower loved to stray.

3. (uncountable) Arbute; wood of strawberry trees.

Translations

strawberry tree — see strawberry tree

References

• arbutus on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Arbutus on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Category:Arbutus on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

Anagrams

• Subartu

Latin

Etymology

Unknown. Lewis and Short (1879) suggests it is related to arbor (“tree”) (compare arbustus (“planted with trees, wooded”)), but Ernout and Meillet (1985) recognizes no etymology, and Schrijver (1991) says it lacks a reliable etymology.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈar.bʊ.tʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈar.bu.tus]

Noun

arbutus f (genitive arbutī); second declension

1. strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo)

   Synonym: unedō

Declension

Second-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	arbutus	arbutī
genitive	arbutī	arbutōrum
dative	arbutō	arbutīs
accusative	arbutum	arbutōs
ablative	arbutō	arbutīs
vocative	arbute	arbutī

Derived terms

• arbuteus
• arbutum

Descendants

• Asturian: (archaic) albedru
• Catalan: arboç
• Galician: érbedo, albedro
• Italian: albatro
• Occitan: arboça, arboç
  • → French: arbouse, arbousier
• Old Spanish: alborco
  • Spanish: aborto, borto
• Portuguese: êrvedo
• Translingual: Arbutus

Further reading

• “arbutus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “arbutus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “arbutus”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “arbutus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• Genaust, Helmut (1996), “Árbutus”, in Etymologisches Wörterbuch der botanischen Pflanzennamen (in German), 3^rd edition, Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag, →ISBN, page 73a